950819

Aptma survey puts

number of closed

spindles at 3.3mn

AFZAL AHMED

KARACHI: Out of the 8.8 million spindles, 3.3 million spindles were closed as of May 31, 1985, according to the preliminary findings of a survey undertaken by the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) to assess the crisis faced the textile industry.

Of the 3.3 million closed spindles, 266,479 are of those 21 units which had been declared permanently closed before the crisis began three years ago. About 3.05 million spindles are said to have closed down during the cotton and textile industries' crisis period, since 1993.

The survey further revealed that out of the 529 textile units in the country, 132 were completely closed as of May 31st, while of the remaining 397 units 186 were partially closed, i.e. they had either reduced the number of working spindles or had cut down the number of shifts per day.

These working units also include those manufacturing yarns on rotors and out of the 131,668 rotors, 44,940 were completely closed while 16,706 were partially closed leaving a workable rotor capacity of 70,022 rotors as of May 31st. These figures were being further updated till July 31st before being submitted in a meeting with Textile Commissioner and CBR officials scheduled for Monday.

The three sides will compare their figures on Monday and will prepare a final list of the textile units fully or partially closed in order to help government formulate measures for the assistance of the troubled industry.

Aptma's list of textile units working fully or partially till July 31st was expected to be finalized by Sunday afternoon, claimed Aptma officials.