In corporate world lessons are always learnt from history, even from experiences of companies that have ceased to exist. That's why the Great Depression of 1930s in the US is still taught and discussed in US business and corporate environment as well as overseas.
As far as our Textile sector is concerned, just earlier this month (Sep 2020) APTMA executive director Raza Baqir has confirmed that majority of int'l chains have suspended purchases from Pakistan. Some of these chains are Levi Strauss, JCPenny, Mango, H & M, Nike, Gap etc.
Our textile industry in Sep 2020 is running at 50-60% capacity, and may take another 6 months to get back on track. In addition to after effects of covid, the textile experts say that if govt does not reduce taxes and import duties of raw materials, export targets of 35 billion dollars by 2025 will be missed. That shall hurt the whole of textile sector, including the textile companies of Lucky group.
Coming over to the Cement industry, even before covid most of the companies were struggling hard due to over - supply and reduced demand. The exports were also declining (our export agreements with India had ended). At present the difference between daily production and consumption is nearly 50 k tons. Although the govt has cut FED and customs duty on coal import, cement manufacturers are demanding more consessions to recover from losses (or reduced profitability).
All hopes of the cement industry's revival are on new dams and Naya Pakistan projects. These are politically motivated decisions and can be adversely affected in case of political unrest, the impact of which will also come on the cement industry.
Anyways, it's a never ending debate. In it, there are no right or wrong answers. But one this is for sure that business environment in Pakistan is very fluid. Still, if one has a blind faith in performance of a company or group then there is no point in discussing it any further.
