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India gaining Japaneseyarn market at Pakistan's cost

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: India has got a bigger share of the yarn market of Japan as Pakistan is losing the market, said a report published in an internationally known weekly.

Japan's Cotton yarn imports increased in total by over 11 percent in Japan.

"Of the major suppliers, India and Indonesia each gained market share, at the expense of China and, in particular, Pakistan, which nonetheless accounted for just under 50 percent of the import volume," said the weekly.

Mills in India and Indonesia will doubtless continue to vie strongly for business, whereas the position of their counterparts in Pakistan may be significantly affected by policy decisions soon to be forthcoming from Islamabad.

"The Commerce Minister has this week again indicated that curbs will be placed on cotton yarn exports, in deference to the interests of the downstream textile sector," said the weekly.

Though the overall yarn exports were not affected but the value-added sector might cause to shrink their share in the market.

They also fear that any kind of restriction on yarn exports would send a long term effect on the foreign exchange earnings of the country.

However, the value-added sectors is assuring the government that the restriction on export of yarn would bring more dollar. "Instead of increasing export steadily, the market would take a long jump just in 2 to 3 years," said an exporter of value-added textile products.

The pattern of competition could be evolved for the region's major yarn importers during the year ahead.

China's export-oriented spinners will presumably have benefited from a market improvement in their competitive position, following the liberalisation of domestic raw cotton prices with effect from September 1999, and the higher costs incurred since the year-end by their competitors abroad.