KARACHI, June 3: The unannounced and prolonged load-shedding has adversely affected the industrial sector and many export-oriented units are unable to meet their foreign contracts worth millions of dollars.

The five major industrial areas of the city -- Site Association, Korangi industrial area, Landhi, F B Area and North Karachi estates suffer from the worst power breakdowns, which does not only bring the industrial activity to a grinding halt but is also causing damage to plant and machinery.

But the most damaging aspect of the on-going load- shedding by city’s power utility is the loss of production hours, which results in delays and some time even in cancellation of export orders.

The leaders of the associations of industrial areas contacted by Dawn were unanimous in their views that if the elected- government takes the stakeholder on board many problems could be sorted out with good management and pragmatic approach.

Site Association of Industry chairman Nisar Sheikhani said that the unannounced load-shedding was more damaging to the industrial activity as the industry could not set its production scheduled.

Secondly, he said, there are many industries, which need a lot of time to bring them back into production and this was true for, particularly spinning and weaving industry. He further said that the daylight programme introduced by the government from June 1, could not bring any improvement in power supply as the unscheduled load-shedding continues unabated.

He said that in a meeting with senior minister Pir Mazharul Haq the daylight programme was discussed. However, not a single decision of this programme had been implemented.

F B Area Association of Trade and Industry chairman Idrees Gigi said that industries in the area were presently confronted with duel shortage of power and water. He said the scheduled load-shedding could be tolerated for any length of time but the unannounced one was crippling industrial activity.

He said the row between the city Nazim and the provincial minister over the control of Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) had stalled work on water development projects initiated by city district government.

The industry has to purchase water for processing textile products, which has further added to their cost.

Korangi Association of Trade and Industry chairman Sheikh Fazle Jalil said that the unscheduled load-shedding has brought down industrial production to 50 per cent. He said that the daylight concept was not working as many stakeholders such as market committees have rejected it.

He suggested that the government should allow private sector to import duty-free small power generating units, which could cater the needs of small and medium size industries, which are the worst affected.

Mr Jalil said that these units should also be allowed to import duty free furnace oil to run these plants. Due to multiple problems many textile units have already closed down and converted into multi-story plazas, shopping malls and warehouses, he added.

North Karachi Association of Trade and Industry chairman Noor Ahmed Khan said that the prolonged and unscheduled load-shedding was causing a lot of hardship to export- oriented industry, which fails to meet its shipping schedule and in many cases LCs have been cancelled by the buyers.

Already, textile exports, he said, were on the decline and “our competitors are capturing our markets as we could not compete due to high cost of inputs.