Dear Business Friends,

Textile products worth $636.442 million have been exported so far in the current fiscal year from Faisalabad which is $64.959 million above the amount earned in the corresponding period last year. Textile goods constitute around 98 percent of the total exports from Faisalabad, the main hub of textile production in the region. Textile items exported from Faisalabad include yarn and fabrics of international standard in cotton, blended man-made fabrics, grey, dyed and printed bed sheets, curtains, garments and hosiery products.

Textile machinery import in the first quarter of this fiscal year has reached $145.73 million. Officials say that spinning sector has been upgraded in last five years with investment of more than Rs200 billion and what is needed now is modernisation of ginneries, processing and restructuring of value-added textile sector that includes weaving and garments.

The textile business sources put total import of machinery in post 9/11 period at $5 billion plus motivated by the increasing market access availability on purely political consideration because of Pakistan government’s decision to join the war against terrorism and also in anticipation of the opportunities after January 2005 when the Multi-fibre Arrangement (MFA) was phased out.

The Pakistani Textile industry never witnessed expansion of such magnitude as was seen in last five years and even in Karachi, which is now considered a secondary important textile centre after Punjab, as many as about two dozen new projects have either been completed or are in final stages of completion.