In Pakistan, paper cone-makers demand hike in prices

Say large industries quote rates that offer almost no profit margin

KARACHI: Although various industries have time and again shared their grievances with the government and demanded their issues be resolved, the ones that come in the limelight are always the major sectors.

Recently, paper cone manufacturers have demanded that textile mills increase their prices, otherwise, they will be forced to shut down their units, which would disrupt the textile industry and lead to significant job losses.

Paper cones are largely utilised by the spinning industry, which makes yarn from cotton. Yarn is wrapped on these cones which are then exported and sold in the domestic market. This is also a reason why these cones are referred to as yarn carriers in the foreign market. When yarn machines complete spinning, the thread is wrapped on large cones that weigh around four to five pounds and are used for knitting, weaving or sewing in the textile industry.

“It’s a small thing but so vital that there is no other way of carrying yarn,” said All Pakistan Paper Cone Manufacturers Association Central Secretary Information Fida Hussain.

“It is a cottage industry that employs unskilled and less literate workers,” he said, adding that large industries always took advantage and quoted prices that offered almost no profit margin. Quoting the prices, Hussain said four-ply cones were offered at Rs4.20 per piece and five-ply cones were sold at Rs5.20 per piece.

“Paper or the cone board - the raw material for the cone - comes from Faisalabad and Gujranwala where eight to 10 factories are producing the board,” he said.

These cone board producers form an alliance and increase prices as they did recently by increasing Rs100 on one bundle of 23kg to Rs1,000 from August 17, because of higher prices of gas and electricity. This Rs100 hike in raw material increases the final product price by Rs0.40 per piece.

There are 14 cone producers in Karachi, 24 in Multan and more than 50 in Faisalabad as a vast number of textile mills are located in Faisalabad.

“Whenever the raw paper price rises, we find ourselves in trouble as we cannot bargain with any party, neither with raw material producers nor with yarn producers,” he said.

“Big mills blackmail us by threatening that they will stop buying cones from us due to which the poor cone-makers agree on lesser margins,” Hussain lamented. “Purchasers of these large industries do not pay heed to our demand,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 6^th, 2019.

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