Research, innovations and development in technical textiles, yarn quality, clothing products, process performance, fabric finishing, colouration technology and marketing can bring significant advancement in textile sector and market supremacy. Drastic measures through strategic management both in public and private level can strengthen the position of Pakistan in post-2004 era of textile world. Pakistan's textile sector has made considerable advances in production capacity and capability in the last four years. There is now a marked shift to value addition and the share of garments and made-ups has increased from 47% to 58%. Simultaneously, the share of yarn and fabrics in exports has fallen from 53% to 42%. Today it contributes 67% of exports, and many product lines, such as bed linen and garments, are expanding rapidly.

By mid-sixties there were about 180 units of textile bleaching, printing and processing units, mostly situated in Karachi and a small number in the Punjab. In 1968, inconsequence of change in the basis of collection of excise duty from capacity to production, most of the mills closed down their weaving sections. The looms, removed from the mills, were installed outsides the mills' premises in units of four, which has been exempted from excise duty.

About 31,000 looms since 1969-70, continued to operate in the mill sector even after general segregation of weaving. This number decreased to only 10,000 looms by the end of June 2003. In the non-mill sector a big majority of the units operate at very low level, having no automatic machinery. In some factories, the printing of textile is done by spreading the cloth on tops of tables and pressing design screens on them, a method which is primitive as compared to the process in use by the modern and automated factories.

There are two major complaints about Pakistani fabrics: there is no consistency in colours/shades; and the dye bleeds out in the first washing. While poor selection of cotton is responsible for inconsistency in dyeing and bleaching due to use of substandard dyes. The poor finishing may also be attributed to the facts that the textile processing units are operating mostly in the unorganised sector at small scale, without modern processing facilities. Thus, the overseas buyers prefer to buy yarn or grey fabrics from Pakistan. According to a study conducted by the National Productivity Organisation (NPO), the loss of productivity resulting from the poor shape of the machinery in operation in the power loom sector has been estimated at Rs. 450 million annually.

The government under Textile Vision 2005 has focused more on providing credit and other facilitative support to diversify the products, especially to cater the needs of the high value added sector like garment industry. The textile industry invested substantially in BMR for improving production quality and moving towards more value addition during the last four years. There has been a substantial increase in the capacities, production and consumption of raw materials. The installed and effective capacities in the weaving sector are given in Table-1.

The weaving and made-up sectors have three different sub-sectors in weaving viz. integrated, independent weaving units and power loom sector. Cloth is being produced in both mill and non-mill sectors. Production of cloth (mill-sector) increased from 295 million sq meters in 1989-99 to 586 million sq meters in 2002-2003. Pakistan fabric's range from coarse to super varieties, with coarse and medium varieties consumed locally.

The pattern of consumption has shifted from pure cotton to blended fabrics i.e. polyester/cotton, polyester/viscose etc. because of their durability and comparatively cheaper prices. Out of total production of 586 million sq. meters cloth during 2002-03 in mill sector, 50% produced in grey form, 33% dyed and printed, 13% blended and 4% bleached. There are a large number of vertically integrated units, where production is controlled from fibre to the end product, and marketed abroad directly. Category-wise production of cloth (mill-sector) is given in Table-2. There is an urgent need to bring improvement in textile production, especially in the blended sector. Blended products made from a combination of natural and man-made fabrics are preferred in clothing the world over.

The establishment of textile cities in the major cities of the country is an appreciable move. The government should either set up joint ventures in textile related areas or should provide subsidised credit to textile manufacturers to upgrade their technology and capacity building through 'Technology Up-gradation Fund' (TUF). It is also suggested that smaller units of power looms (upto 50 looms) should be upgraded to auto looms and power loom units larger than 50 looms into air jet looms. The objective of higher value-addition in textile industry cannot be achieved without creating a very strong weaving and processing base.

Textile industry imported Rs 2,336 million (US$ 525 million) worth of machinery in 2002-03 and Rs 2,340 million (US$ 409 million) in 2001-02. The major area of investment, which amounts to nearly $4 billion, has been capacity expansion, product diversification and new product ranges of higher value addition in Greenfield projects during the past four years. As a result of this investment activity in the exports of textiles has grown from $5.9 billion in 1999-2000 to $7.4 billion in 2002-2003; the growth came mainly from exports of the value added components. Import of textile machinery in to Pakistan is given in Table-3.

The exact number of factories, having high-speed rotary textile printing and processing units, is not known. However, most of the available units working on Hi-Tec machines are owned by big industrial and commercial cartels such as Adamjees, Gul Ahmeds etc. At present there are more than 700 independent processing units working in and around Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Karachi, in which about 70 integrated units with complete, finishing facilities. These integrated units have complete finishing facilities i.e. bleaching, mercerising, dyeing, calendering and printing. These textile printing and processing units have been classified into three categories i.e. A, B and C.

Category-A integrated units have complete finishing facilities i.e. bleaching mercerizing, dyeing, calendering and printing. These units from the power loom sector procure cloth and after processing they marked it under own brand names. At times, these units also provide finishing facilities to the traders on charge basis.

Category-B units directly compete with the products of integrated units. In terms of quality, design and colour, their products are in no-way inferior to the products of integrated mills. Like the integrated mills these units also sell their products in wholesale market.

Category-C units are those, which do not have complete finishing facilities. These are either engaged in bleaching and dyeing. In comparison with Type-A, these units perform more work on job order basis. Besides, they also procure cloth from the market and after processing market in under their own brand names.

At present due to non-availability of testing laboratories, Pakistani exporters have to spend much money to get certification from abroad.

If WTO recommended laboratories were established in Pakistan a lot of valuable foreign exchange could be saved.

Export of cotton fabrics increased from 1,575 million sq meters worth US $ 1.10 billion in 1999-2000 to 2005 million sq meters worth US $ 1.35 billion in 2002-2003, thus showing an increase of 23% in terms of value. Major markets for Pakistan's fabric are USA, Hong Kong, UK, China, Dubai, Italy and Turkey. Export of cotton cloth is given in Table-3.

The demand for textiles in the world is around $18 trillion, which is likely to be increased by 6.5% in 2005. China was the leading textile exporter of the world's total exports of $400 billion in 2002. Pakistan has emerged as one of the major cotton textile product suppliers in the world market with share of world yarn trade about 30% and cotton fabric about 8%, having total export of $7.4 billion.
Pakistan should learn a lesson from Bangladesh, which by imports yarn and fabrics from Pakistan and other countries. Bangladesh is not a cotton growing country but presently earns over $3.5 billion on export of value-added textile goods, particularly garments. Now, if a country having no indigenous raw material could excel in this field then as to why Pakistan could not achieve this goal whose total export in textiles comes to around $7 billion only.

If we desire to achieve the target of textile exports as envisaged in the textile vision 2005, we will have to promote value-added sector in textiles.

Textile Vision-2005 has been directed towards an open, market-driven, innovative and dynamic textile sector, which is internationally integrated, globally competitive and fully equipped to exploit the opportunities created by the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA). Pakistan, at present, holds the 8th position in textile exports in Asia. Pakistan can achieve 5th position in Asia in the textile exports as has been targeted in the Textile Vision -2005.

During the last four years, Pakistan's textile sector is preparing itself to face the challenges of the post-quota regime in 2005.

The Textile Board and Ministry of Commerce have geared up efforts for boosting the export targets of textile from the present $7 billion to $14 billion as envisaged by the Textile Vision-2005, which is quite encouraging.

For Pakistan, the competitor will not only be China, India and Vietnam but also countries whom USA has given preferential treatment like NAFTA, CBI, AGOA, etc. The USA has signed TIFA with Pakistan but it will not translate into preferential duties for Pakistani textiles in the near future.
The USA and the EU will on the one hand demand better market access for their textiles and also the implementation of WTO bindings particularly in tariffs and intellectual property rights and enforce strict rules of origin while on the other hand the buyers will make more demands for compliance.

The opportunities for Pakistan will be quota on China and Vietnam beyond 2005, closure of some EU and US companies dealing in basic textile, disadvantage to countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka who thrived due to quota regime and finally, the biggest advantage to Pakistan will be its vertically integrated cotton textile industry. Pakistan has made some progress in facing post-quota era to take the production of textile goods upwards. There was a great possibility that Pakistan would gain and capture more markets in the quota-free era as it was producing high quality textile products and ensured prompt supply owing to indigenous raw cotton.

According to survey conducted by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) during Heimtextile exhibition, held from January 9 to 11, 2004 in Frankfurt, most of the people belonging to different countries said Pakistani products and designs are improving and the country is emerging as the world's leading exporters of textile and garments. The survey concludes that Pakistan will become one of the world's largest textile exporting country in the next 10 years as the demand for its products is continuously rising.

Spanish Textile Machinery at Shanghaitex

As many as 26 Spanish manufacturers of textile machinery, member companies of AMEC-AMTEX, participated in the official pavilion of Spain at Shanghaitex in December 2003.
This effective participation by the Spanish Companies was as a follow-up of Spanish AMTEX China plan launched in 2002 with a view to informing, raising awareness and supporting business in the textile machinery and garment sector wishing to enter the huge Chinese market.

AMTEX China plan chalked out for 2004 included organisation of technical days at the Binzhou finishing plant for China plan companies to present their products.

China is one of the few countries in the world in which economic growth continues registering two digit annual figures. It is clear that few countries in the world can allow themselves the luxury of ignoring the market of this country of over 1,000 million inhabitants.

In comprising with 2001, the quantity of processed fibres in China in 2002 increased by a total of 17,500 million tonnes, with a value of approximately $ 224,000 million dollars. The figure registered in 2002 was over five times registered in 1980 and almost three times higher than the figure of processed fibres in 1990.

The terms of exports in the cotton sector, in 2002 China exported the amount of 388,400 tonnes of cotton yarn to a value of over $ 1,000 million dollars, while in the area of garments and accessories the value of exports reached $ 41,300 million dollars in 2002, representing 71% of the value of textile exports or, to put it another way, 13% of the value of the country's exports
Estimates for the year 2005 foresee the total production of the textile industry in China reaching a value of over $ 1,100 billion dollars, while exports of textile garments will have a value of over $ 600 billion dollars.