KARACHI: Industries suffered production losses during the last two days, in some cases up to 50 per cent, as a sizable number of workers failed to turn up owing to incessant rains and thin public transport on Wednesday and Thursday.
While experiencing the production loss because of thin labour presence, industrialists forecast a bleak picture of both domestic and export related production in case rain and thunderstorms combine to play havoc on Friday and Saturday.
They say in case rains hit the city on Friday and Saturday with same intensity there is little possibility that workers will be able to reach their respective industries, as rains and thunderstorms have inflicted another severe blow on the already pathetic road infrastructure on Wednesday and Thursday.
"When workers will not turn up how the wheel of industries will rotate," the industrialists asked, adding that export-oriented industries might suffer most in case their shipments were delayed for one or two days which would result in expiry of contracts with foreign buyers.
In many industrial areas more than 50 per cent labour and workforce are on daily wages, piece basis and many of them are contract employees hired through contractors. In case rains hit the city on Friday and Saturday they will feel the real pinch.
Some industrialists also faced difficulties in the latter part of the process, whereby their production went according to schedule but they couldn't dispatch their goods to customers due to persistent rains.
However, some of the industrial owners had made preemptive arrangements in view of the weather forecast to ensure production continued unhindered.
Heavy rain also hit movement of goods to ports from industries and arrival of raw material from upcountry towards production units while local supplies to the markets from industries were also affected due to closure of markets.
Many small and medium enterprises, which do not have any power generators, were hit hard while many industries could only run their stand-by generators for four to five hours due to high fuel cost.
Former president of Site Association of Industry (SAI), Muhammad Jawed Bilwani, said that rainwater entered many industrial units and destroyed huge quantity of raw materials as well as finished goods.
Criticizing the provincial government and political parties, he said none of them came forward to help the people in this crucial situation. Instead they blamed each other and did noting. Only a few NGOs, Madarasa workers, Edhi volunteers, etc., were seen on the roads helping people.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020