APTMA Calls on Spinners to Strike
March 18, 2010 The News (Pakistan)
Mansoor Ahmad
As the domestic yarn crisis deepens, the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) announced on Saturday that it would go on strike on March 18, due to the anti-spinners policies adopted by the federal ministry of textiles.
Announcing the strike after the general body meeting of APTMA, APTMA Punjab Chapter Chairman Ejaz Gohar accused the federal textile minister of favoring 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 utilize 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.
Ejaz 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.
(Story found in original format here.)
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