MULTAN, March 16th: All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Punjab Chapter Vice Chairman Muhammad Anees Khawaja has said that all the 350 textile mills would observe complete strike on Thursday (March 18) as the domestic yarn crisis deepened and mediamen would be invited to see the close textile units. Talking to newsmen here today he said that we are protesting due to the anti-spinners policies adopted by the federal ministry of textiles.He said that Member of APTMA from Punjab had endorsed the decision of central body .Announcing the strike after the general body meeting of APTMA, Anees Khawaja accused the federal textile minister of favouring Faisalabad based value-added sector lobby by restricting the monthly export of yarn to only 35,000 tons.He said APTMA members produce 240,000 tons of yarn per month while the domestic industry retains a capacity to utilise only 180,000 tons. He said out of 60,000 tons surplus yarn the government has allowed export of only 35,000 tons leaving the mills with 25,000 tons of surplus yarn that the local industry cannot consume. He said this restriction has been deliberately imposed to artificially create yarn glut in the country so that yarn prices come under pressure. This he added is against the stated principles of free market economy. He said yarn prices will stay high because of high rates of cotton. The spinners he added would prefer closing the mills instead of selling yarn at below cost. He said out of 350 APTMA member 100 spinning mills produce yarn exclusively for export. He said the yarn export quota for the month of March would expire on March 17 after which these mills will be left high and dry as they do not produce yarn used by the local industry. He said the strike on March 18 would coincide with the day when these mills would be forced to close down.

Anees Khawaja said if the government failed to lift the ban on export of yarn after the strike which would be first in past 16 years then the APTMA would convene another general body meeting on March 20, in which resolution for indefinite strike would be passed. Vice Chairman APTMA Punjab said spinners have decided to announce strike after all options were exhausted due to the stubborn attitude of the federal minister for textile. He said closure spinning mills would spell out disaster for the textile industry of the country as the entire textile chain would be forced to cease production.He said the planners should realise that there is no yarn shortage in the country which is evident from increase in exports of all value-added textile products in January. He said the rates of yarn are high not only in Pakistan but around the world because of historic high cotton rates.

Anees Khawaja announced that the APTMA disassociated itself from the federal ministry of textiles and in view of its partiality suggested to rename it as Faisalabad ministry of textiles. He said once a resolution on indefinite strike is passed by the APTMA members would take out processions and may even resort to a long march. He regretted that the frequent tinkering with the yarn exports has eroded the confidence of global yarn buyers who consider Pakistan as unreliable supplier. He said when there would be no exports of yarn from Pakistan after March 18 because of quota restrictions the foreign buyers would divert orders to India “our main competitor” in this field.Spinners said that the government has failed to achieve its objective despite first restricting the yarn exports to 50,000 tons per month in January and then to 35,000 tons in the fourth week of February. The knitwear and garment sector entrepreneurs are divided on the way to tackle the issue. One segment favours a complete ban on yarn exports to force the spinners to bring down rates. Others want the government to provide subsidy to the clothing sector on domestic yarn purchased by them as they find it unfair to put pressure on spinners as cotton rates have increased from Rs3,200 per maund at the start of cotton season to Rs5,800 per maund now. They said the option of duty free yarn import from India is available with the clothing sector but they have not exercised this option because the imported yarn is costlier than the local yarn