Special Report on Technical Textile
Textile is the major economic sector of Pakistan.It is going to be the main driving force of industrial & agricultural sectors in future.
Pakistan needs to Focus 4 Areas of Technical Textile Dr Tahir Shah Bolton University
Growth Rate of Technical Textile-Prof. Niaz Ahmed
Our Institutions to Play a vital Role - Zubair Banduda
Trends in Textile
Engineering Industry of Pakistan
Excerpts of the presenation by Mr. Abdul Majeed,
Chairman, Associated Textile Consultants
Importance of textile industry
According to the “ECONOMIST” intelligence report of August 2003 for Pakistan the following observations have been made: Despite Government efforts to diversify exports and widen the industrial base, the industrial sector remains dominated by the Textile sector. Textile Sector still represents 46% of total manufacturing and provides 68% of Pakistan’s Export receipts.
The textile and garment industries at the moment are amongst one of the most proactive and productive sectors in Pakistan's economy and need additional support for international exposure to further magnify the exports._ Mr. Abdul Majeed Haji Mohammad, Presidnt Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Indutry (KCCI).
Event like MEGATECH 2010 is a tribute to our textile industry's global importance! By Mr. Anwar Ahmed Tata
Arif Hasan exclusively talks with Jeevey Pakistan at the occasion of MEGATECHPAKISTAN 2010. He told that the current conference is an effort to promote the process of research and development of advancement in textile industry......click to Watch his interview
The strong performance stemmed
from two factors :a Increase in import quotas
especially by U.S.A, EU and TURKEY
b Textile industry has invested over US$1.5 billions in new technologies
and modernization in the last 3 years.
Efficiency and the innovation in textile is the only hope to get the
country out of economic problems.
Present status of Pakistan
Textile engineering sector
The Pakistan Textile Engineering Sector is underdeveloped and under
utilized. Mostly it caters in the form of spares, components for
modernization and machines used in cottage or small scale industries.
A cursory look at the structure of Pakistan Textile Industry shows that
most of them are cottage industry, small/medium industrial units and few
large integrated state of art units. The number of units which fall
under each category varies from sub-sector to sub-sector. Similarly the
Textile Engineering Units also vary from small, medium and large in
size. The Textile Engineering Industry comprises approximately 80% small
work shops, 15% medium engineering Units and 5% large Engineering Units.
It will not be out place to mention that the large engineering units are
in Public Sector. The small and medium Engineering Units work on reverse
Engineering principles, only few work according to Engineering Drawings
and still fewer have Testing or Quality Control facilities.
On the basis of initial survey of Textile Engineering Units (Not
complete yet), approximately 500 units are engaged all over Pakistan,
employing approximately 50000 work force which is mostly skilled. Even
under the present conditions and without any support, Pakistan Textile
Engineering Industry is providing import substitution worth around one
billion US dollars. This sector also exports to small and medium Textile
Units in Bangladesh, Iran, Sri Lanka, etc.
The Textile Engineering Sector is throttled through taxes on raw
material, import of components, electronic and electrical parts.
Competition
The present Textile Engineering Industry is up against competition from
smuggled, under invoiced, and mis-declared components, parts and
accessories. For example, in case of second hand machinery, there is
little or no check and the competition mainly rests on lower price.
Machines smuggled especially from China, India, Taiwan are not better in
quality but are selling cheaper. A bold initiative is needed which can
boost the production as capacity and markets are there, only change in
environment is need.
Finishing look and control components
The products manufactured locally, when displayed against foreign goods
- offer a poor look – primarily because of the unsightly finishing of
welding seams, electroplating, painting and other surface treatments. In
addition, the adoption of wrong design parameters, or the attempt to
reduce the cost of production, lead to the incorporation of under-sized
electrical motors and electric / electronic control panels.
Quality control
There are very few units which have their own material testing
facilities, or have an access to any such service from out side.
Although reverse engineering is practiced, yet this copying is done
without adequate material testing. This results in poor quality or in
many cases in an undue over - engineering. A great stress on quality
control is being laid by all the major importing countries, especially
in the wake of ISO 9000 series. There is, therefore, a need of assisting
the local textile engineering the relevant institutions, such as PSI,
NPC, CTL, etc.
To encourage the local textile industry an access to the modern practices in the specialized areas of manufacturing processes, productivity enhancement and quality control, an institutional mechanism should be set up which provides the industry an adequate and industry-friendly assistance from such organizations as MIRDC, PITAC, CTL and PSI, etc. In addition such institutions as Pak-Swiss Training Centre and Pak-German Training Centre, as well as the Small Scale Industrial Estates should be encouraged to provide the industry necessary technical assistance and production aids such as tools, jigs, fixtures, gauges, etc. for productivity improvement and quality control.
Employment opportunities
Keeping in view the linkage of the Engineering Sector to other sectors of economy, it can be safely assumed that every one person employed in Engineering will add at least 2 more persons in the over all economy. There is ample scope for qualified engineers in mechanical, electric and electronics disciplines to boost this sector.
Need for training institutions
Diploma Level Courses on the pattern of Pak-Swiss Training Centre in Karachi should also be opened in the Textile Institutions in Faisalabad and Karachi and more such courses should be introduced in the Polytechnics in areas like Multan, Hyderabad, Lahore and Gujranwala.
Exhibitions
Most of these small workshops are shy or afraid of getting registered or displaying their products, mainly from the fear of the revenue collection, labor controlling and other government regulating agencies. This fear keeps them away from the mainstream Industry. This also leads to the lack of interaction among the small scale, medium scale and higher level industry for a purposeful vendor development.
National Exhibitions held annually can be very helpful in bringing out the skills, the range of products and opportunities of group collaboration. It will help the planners and large scale engineering industry in defining the way for developing skills in order to make this sector strong and viable. This will culminate a Vendors List which can be recommended to foreign suppliers interested in coming to this market and starting assembling / manufacturing on large scale.
The interaction between the foreign textile manufacturing industry could also be enhanced by facilitating the indigenous Textile Engineering Industry to participate in the specialized Exhibitions and fairs being held in those countries.
Future opportunities
Our main competitors in primary textile products with the advantage of large engineering sector in this region are China and India. The only country in this region without strong engineering base is Pakistan and our dependence upon outside Engineering Industry keeps our cost of production higher with low engineering skills.
Looking into the future a strong competition from China and India for this market requirements can be used to involve them to start assembly plants under their guidance and cooperation.
Some progress in the direction has led to the development of a Task Force in the Ministry of Industries and Textile Engineering is growingly lucrative for investors, local and foreigners.
E-commerce Gateway MoU with Chinese Co.
The E-commerce Gateway has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with a Chinese company Global Enterprise Consulting to launch a business a match making' service in Pakistan and China.
According to E-commerce Gateway Pakistan. "This service includes seeking of agents, distributors, buyers, suppliers or joint venture partners in Pakistan or Middle east for Chinese companies that intend to do business in these markets".
The service will include all kinds of facilitation required to help increase the Chinese exports to the Middle East and South Asian markets.
Courtesy :Pakistan Textile Journal