Transporters’ strike: USD500m worth of export containers stuck at factories: PTEA

ISLAMABAD: The Patron in chief of the Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) Khurram MUKHTAR has issued an urgent warning that the nationwide transporters’ strike, now in its fifth consecutive day, has stranded an estimated USD500 million worth of export containers at factories during what is traditionally the industry’s peak shipping season.

In a statement, he said that Pakistan’s exports had finally regained momentum since July, after a difficult period for the sector. This strike has brought that progress to a halt overnight, the Patron said. “Container after container is sitting idle at our factories while foreign buyers wait, and every day of delay sends the wrong signal to the international market about Pakistan’s reliability as a trading partner.

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The Patron noted that recurring transport disruptions have increasingly become a structural risk to the country’s export competitiveness. Strikes of this scale and frequency cannot keep becoming the new normal. Every time this happens, we lose ground to competing exporting nations who do not face these disruptions, and we put existing buyer relationships and future orders at risk.

With ports already operating at limited capacity, PTEA warned that continued delays would result in mounting demurrage and detention charges, missed shipment deadlines, and potential penalty claims from international buyers, compounding losses well beyond the direct value of stalled cargo.

PTEA has called on the Federal Government to urgently intervene and broker a resolution between transporters and relevant authorities, and to put in place mechanisms that give export cargo movement priority during any future industrial action, so that Pakistan’s hard won export gains are not repeatedly put at risk.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026