Pakistan’s textile group exports witnessed a decline of 15.23 percent in October 2022 on a year-on-year (YoY) basis and stood at $1.357 billion compared to $1.6 billion during the same month of last year, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
According to a report by Ismail Iqbal Securities, the effect of the global economic slowdown and high inventory levels held with retailers is now becoming more visible. The fall in export value has mainly come from volumetric decline as prices of almost all categories have either increased or stayed flat.
On a month-on-month (MoM) basis, the textile group registered 11.13 percent negative growth compared to $1.527 billion in September 2022.
The data on exports and imports released by PBS revealed that the country’s textile group exports declined by 1.34 percent during the first four months (July-October) of the current fiscal year 2022-23 (FY23) and stood at $5.941 billion compared to $6.021 billion during the same period of last year.
Cotton yarn exports registered 27.73 percent negative growth during the first four months of FY23 and stood at $285.315 million compared to $394.765 million during the same period of the last year.
On a YoY basis, cotton yarn exports registered 53.79 percent negative growth, while on a MoM basis they registered 35.30 percent negative growth.
Raw cotton exports registered 100 percent growth in July-October FY23 on a YoY basis. Raw cotton import is up 9 percent on an MoM basis, where the quantity is up 15 percent. The cumulative 4MFY23 raw cotton import is up by 4.7 percent, however, the quantity imported is down by 11 percent, which shows that the industry has not yet covered for the shortage of local cotton crops due to floods.
Overall exports
The country’s overall exports during the first four months of FY23 stood at $9.563 billion (provisional) against $9.460 billion during the corresponding period of last year showing an increase of 1.09 percent.
The exports in October 2022 were $2.384 billion (provisional) as compared to $ 2.446 billion in September 2022 showing a decrease of 2.53 percent and by 3.25 percent as compared to $2.464 billion in October 2021.
The main commodities of exports during October 2022 were knitwear (Rs. 86,400 million), readymade garments (Rs. 60,778 million), bedwear (Rs. 47,895 million), cotton cloth (Rs. 37,407 million), rice others (Rs. 20,344 million), towels (Rs. 17,553 million), madeup articles (excl. Towels & bedwear) (Rs. 12,758 million), fish & fish preparations (Rs. 12,057 million), rice basmati (Rs. 11,375 million) and cotton yarn (Rs. 10,819 million).
Going forward, textile exports are expected to remain under pressure due to a lack of new orders amid the global economic slowdown and high inventory levels held by US retailers. On the domestic front, amid the winter season, the gas supply to the textile industry has decreased as consumers are Government’s first priority. This has forced the industry to switch towards the grid which is likely to hurt Sindh-based exporters as the province enjoys significantly lower gas rates compared to Punjab.
