Muhammad Saleem

High cost of energy coupled with its unpredictable supply is pushing the textile sector to opt for energy-efficient, safe, and reliable China-made boilers in order to energize their machinery, reports WealthPK. The Chinese boiler – meant to consume corn-cob –costs millions. The lack of financial assistance from the government has left the millers with no option but to switch over to modern machinery in order to meet their orders. Zia Hussain, a garment exporter, got back home a couple of days after finalizing a deal with a Chinese company for the import of a modern boiler. Faisalabad is the textile capital of Pakistan, where dozens of mills are manufacturing export-oriented products like garments, bedsheets, towels and other items. Gas and electricity power the manufacturing units, but their surging prices and interrupted supply have added to the textile sector's woes. The millers in the past installed furnace oil-fired boilers and gas boilers but now they are placing orders for purchase of corn-cob-fired Chinese boilers.

Talking to WealthPK, Zia Hussain said since the beginning of energy crisis, the millers had spent millions on the installation of modern equipment, but it lost its utility due to the high prices of gas and electricity and now they were struggling to buy the latest machinery to keep their production units going uninterrupted. Elaborating on the process, he said that the current majority of textile exporters were using old boilers which were increasing the cost of production requiring them to switch over to the modern boilers. "I visited China a few days ago and finalized a deal to purchase a modern boiler. This boiler has been specially designed to energize the machines by consuming corn cob. In the past, we spent millions on different types of boilers, but now we're fed up with making such investments," he added. 

Another exporter, who identified himself as Ali, told WealthPK that once corn-cob was available to them almost free, but now its prices were increasing keeping in view the demand of the millers. "The exporters face criticism that they benefitted from the subsidy in the past, but now they are running into crisis, as the government has stopped the subsidy. This is all rubbish having nothing to do with reality. We are facing a crisis due to multiple factors and the current energy crisis and its inflated prices are the main contributors," Ali said. "Our business rivals, including India, Bangladesh and Vietnam, are working on modern lines, but on the contrary, we are still haunted by the decades-old issue of energy shortage. To tackle the energy crisis, the millers are finding suitable ways to keep their businesses running, but it seems their investments made on new boilers would prove a dud after a few years," Ali said.

Credit: INP-WealthPk