Helped by strong demand of yarns and fabrics from China, the Pakistan-based Quetta Textile Mills reported a robust growth in its bottom-line for the quarter ended September 2013. The profit after tax of the Quetta Group’s flagship company increased to Rs 51.25 million from Rs 3.797 million in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal. Quetta Textile’s turnover in the quarter ended September 2013 also increased by 16.7 per cent year-on-year at Rs 3.38 billion.
With the demand for yarn from China expected to be consistent, driven by the Chinese government’s cotton support price policy, and granting of General Systems of Preference (GSP) plus status by the European Union to Pakistan, the company is likely to sustain the growth momentum in coming quarters.
At present, nearly two-thirds of Pakistan's exports comprise yarn, fabrics and their value-added varieties and the share is expected to go even higher as cotton costs in China are much higher than they are in Pakistan. Moreover, with China’s Government setting a high domestic floor price for raw cotton, the Chinese textile industry is likely to import more lower-priced cotton yarn from the world market, especially from Pakistan, India and Vietnam.
Even as the year 2013, like so many previous years, saw the Pakistani industries struggling with grinding power crisis, some of the country’s textile mills are expected to reap windfall gains in coming years.
