Knitwear and Hosiery

February 23, 2025 Textile and Clothing 0

“Woolen, Knitwear and Hosiery”

The knitwear garment sector is ranked top among the textile group for the last many years. The knitwear (Hosiery) exports have maintained its top position with the highest in the textile export chain as well as in total national export with reasonable increase in the fiscal year as compared to previous years. The popularity of knit goods has grown tremendously in the recent years because of the increased versatility of knitting techniques, the adaptability of many new manmade fibers and the growth in the consumer demand for wrinkle resistant, stretchable, snug fitted garments, particularly in greatly expanding areas of sportswear and other casual wear garments.

This sector has export potential, despite remaining under pressure from its competitors, mainly Bangladesh, India and the Far Eastern nations. Knitwear sector, being the largest foreign exchange earner as well as the largest contributor in the textile and total export of the country. Pakistan is the fourth largest cotton producer in the world and is an important player in the global textile market. Its knitwear industry is the highest value-added textile sector in the country and is distinguished by the high quality of raw material and competitive value of the end product.

Knitwear and Hosiery in a wide variety of styles, sizes and colors are produced and exported to
many parts of the world, like USA, UK, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Spain. Standard international
sizes and specification are generally used in garment manufacture. The industry shows a remarkable degree of adaptability and skill.

ANALYSIS OF KNIT WEAR INDUSTRY IN PAKISTAN

Introduction: The knitwear industry in Pakistan has grown fairly rapidly after the independence. Since the industry is closely related to the textile industry its development and growth has closely followed the footsteps of the textile industry. Starting with 2 or 3 units in 1950 today there are 700 + units with more than 15000 machine, of these 700 units, more than 50% are fully integrated. In early years the industry produced simple items such as socks and undergarments but with the passage of time it has increasingly produced more sophisticated items and there is more value addition in the sector.

Industry Structure of Apparel Sector of Pakistan: Pakistan’s apparel & garment industry comprised of approximately 700 vertically integrated units in the knitwear sector, whereas very few integrated woven garment manufacturing units are present. It additionally has 670 finishing units both for the knit and woven fabrics. There are approximately 4000 garment units, with a diverse range of stitching capability including leather, knit and woven garments and made-ups with 160,000 industrial and 450,000 domestic sewing machines. Most of these garment manufacturers are small units having less than 30 stitching machines, There are 400 units with 30 – 50 machines and 600 units with 50 – 300 machines. Knitting industry is growing at a rate of 15 to 17% per anum, the knitting sector has become a large consumer of domestic cotton yarn, Pakistan’s knitting industry comprises of approximately 700 separate or vertically integrated units with approximately 15,000 knitting machines, which are mostly imported. The machinery used in the knitting sector especially for circular knitting is largely imported from Europe and Japan. Major portion of the country’s entire production of knitwear, valued at nearly US$742 million in past decade, is exported. Despite current economic conditions, the industry is expected to continue to grow at a stable rate either through the expansion of existing units and / or through the establishment of new small and medium scale specialized knitting units.

In the knit based sector, men’s wear exports of Pakistan are less as compare to the woven-based men’s garment segment, In previous decade, the exports of knit men’s wear were $ 314 million, while in the woven men’s wear segment, the exports are almost 655 HIGHER, However, this fact is understandable when the overall global value in both categories are taken into account. With exports of $314 million, Pakistan holds a market share of 4.5% of the world imports. Again here quantity growth has been stagnant since late nineties, registering a meager rise of 5 million units, while export earnings showing a substantial growth increased by more than 70% in five years. However, this growth in value has not stabilized indicating that it would be impossible to increase export value without products as well as market diversification.

Women’s Wear: Women wear is the largest single product category of garments in value terms. In 1997, total global import in this single category were to the tune of US$ 48 billion. This means that this segment accounts for 32% of the total world apparel imports.