Textile mills output falls 35% after 3-day gas cut

Labour-intensive industry demands priority in energy supply.

FAISALABAD: Spinning and weaving industries, while rejecting gas supply suspension for three days in a week, have said the energy shortage has affected 35 per cent of production capacity and investment worth billions of rupees.

Industry players asked the government to ensure gas supply for at least five days a week, because alternative fuels including furnace oil and diesel pushed up the cost of production.

Nagra Spinning Mills Chief Executive Officer Zaheer-ul-Hassan said the three-day gas holiday would cause delay in meeting international orders and destroy the industry.  “Cut in gas supply for 140 days in a year has affected 35 per cent capacity of textile industries.”  Mudassar Ali of AB Exports said the production capacity worth above $2 billion would remain idle, the same reason the textile industry failed to achieve $15 billion export target last year.

“We have the capacity to export $25 billion worth of goods, but energy shortages put a cap on this,” he added. All Pakistan Textile Mills Association’s Energy Standing Committee Chairman Umar Nazar Shah stressed that the textile industry should get priority in gas supply.

Ashraf Weaving Industry CEO Rehan Ashraf pointed out that the industry kept its workers despite an extensive cut in gas supplies last year and asked the government to give priority to this labour-intensive industry this time around. “We expect to increase textile exports to $16 billion this year,” he said.

Ideal Spinning Mills Director Umer Saeed warned that the spinning industry could not survive with 140 days of shutdown due to gas outages as according to feasibility studies the mills had been established to work for 364 days in a year.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th,  2011.