The Furniture Sector in Pakistan: Export performance and ... - TRTA i

More documents

Recommendations

Info

• Assembly, fabrication, finishing decoration, and application of paint, lacquer, hardener and polish • Packaging, warehousing and transports. In Pakistan, in few cases hand carving is done before assembling furniture pieces. While in other cases, carving is done after assembling the pieces. However, the ideal way is to go for carving before assembly. The process of some furniture types requires carving to be done before they are assembled for making beds, sofas, chairs, etc. It has also been noted that detailed master drawings are used in relatively few companies in the Pakistani furniture industry. This may affect the quality of transferring designs to the components as well as the accuracy of component making. On the other hand, in some of the more sophisticated companies, computerised CAD systems are deployed. For those companies that have reached a semi-industrial or industrial operation, there are possibilities to enhance the process flows and gain better operational efficiencies. One approach is described below. Box 2.3 Production flow improvements: a practical approach Steps to be taken • Assess the entire production process, from orders through manufacturing, packaging and shipping. • Measure the time between an order and its shipment. • Move tasks such as component cutting and gluing, once in different parts of the plant, to activity cells all in one area. Along with reducing the steps involved in moving a product from one area to another, the cells improve communications among workers. • Set clearly stated production goals for a cell every day; this lets workers see how well they are doing. Expected results • The new approach reduces defects, overproduction, excess inventory, unnecessary steps, over-processing, material movement and waiting times. • Production cycle times can be reduced by some 50-90% on certain products. 2.1.3 Availability, price and quality of raw material Availability More than 80% of Pakistan’s furniture is dependant on Sheesham, also called rosewood. In the last five years, the Forestry department has noted that the reserves of Sheesham have decreased by 50%. Sheesham is getting extinct day by day. Due to its shortage in the market, its prices are increasing everyday. Currently, very few exporters are using other woods as a substitute for Sheesham, but their use is gradually increasing. Still the use of substitutes is limited because these woods are also scarcely available. Also, the exporters are not very much aware of their usage and treatment. At the same time, the use of imported woods is increasing. Duty structure has reduced considerably. However, those companies that are using imported timber believe that the reduced duty structure has not affected the price structure a lot. The dealers have kept the same prices, with the justification that the prices have increased in the international market, 20 International Trade Centre
freight rates have increased and dollar value has increased, etc. The industry should assess the demand and import wood in bulk. Box 2.4 Shortage of rosewood (Sheesham) – What are the options? It goes beyond the scope of this study to look into the shortage of raw materials - rosewood (Sheesham) in particular - for the furniture industry in Pakistan. The shortage is already very serious and a separate investigation of options for the industry is recommended The investigation should cover the following items as a minimum: • Raw material status What is the current area (hectares) covered and where. Find out its volume, ownership, age of trees and access (inventory/stock taking). What is the role of rosewood and other types of trees on the environment (soil erosion etc.)? The study should also cover non-rosewood • New plantings of rosewood What goes on right now in rosewood - of new planting, if any? Where should it be, who should own/pay, what are the obstacles, timing, etc.? • Other types of wood What other types of wood are being planted or could/should be planted? Where, by whom, cost, timing, etc.? How do/would they grow in Pakistan (climate, soil,)? Which types would fit into the present product mix, the equipment/machines available, the experience among producers etc.? • Import of wood Which types of wood, from where, cost estimates (raw material price and transportation), logistic issues i.e. harbour, storage, financing, etc.)? What is the need for redesign of products, possible other markets and other types of equipment to handle? • Other end products What are the options for products that require less rosewood e.g. based on designs that are thinner/slimmer/smaller or mixed with other types of wood? • Reduced wastage programme Wastage is mentioned to be huge. What could be done i.e. change of machines, training, other sizes of lumber, etc. to reduce the waste? • Better use of wasted wood How could the wasted wood be used better? Either for other products (handicraft etc.) or for making bigger pieces by pressure techniques or finger-joint, etc. Price While imported wood is very expensive, the prices of local woods are no exception. Quality The quality of local Sheesham, which was available a few years back, is not available any more. There are many reasons for this. The use of plywood and ply boards has increased a lot. Most Sheesham wood is taken by this panel board industry because they require very thin slices of wood i.e. veneer. From the same wood they make 10 to 15 sheets to make various tops of boards. Currently, Pakistan’s exports are based on solid wood. Its market will keep on International Trade Centre 21
Page 1 and 2: The Furniture Sector in Pakistan
Page 3 and 4: Acknowledgements The report was pre
Page 5 and 6: Abbreviations AFTA AHEC AKTRIN APFE
Page 7 and 8: Table of contents Acknowledgements
Page 9 and 10: Box 3.1 Multilateral discipline of
Page 11 and 12: Executive summary This study sets t
Page 13 and 14: the extent possible maintain or imp
Page 15 and 16: 1 Background and objectives 1.1 EC
Page 17 and 18: 2 Furniture sector in Pakistan 2.1
Page 19 and 20: On the buyer’s side, there are gl
Page 21 and 22: According to the websites of import
Page 23 and 24: Global demand for furniture in main
Page 25 and 26: suppliers, both domestic and other
Page 27 and 28: Table 2.3 Pakistani furniture expor
Page 29: Figure 2.4 Distribution structure f
Page 33 and 34: Price The prices of local machinery
Page 35 and 36: Indonesia has also announced a ban
Page 37 and 38: industry itself should support effo
Page 39 and 40: various counterparts, the supplier
Page 41 and 42: Box 2.7 UK Timber Trade Federation
Page 43 and 44: Figure 2.5 Simplified example on ch
Page 45 and 46: At least 70% of the wood used in ma
Page 47 and 48: Scope of joint ventures There exist
Page 49 and 50: • With FAO’s Forest Products an
Page 51 and 52: The contact information of many of
Page 53 and 54: Box 2.10 USAID initiative in the fu
Page 55 and 56: Opportunities Major opportunities m
Page 57 and 58: pressure on the price. There appear
Page 59 and 60: Pakistan does not export this furni
Page 61 and 62: 3.1.3 Functional scope The function
Page 63 and 64: Current status of efforts to libera
Page 65 and 66: 3.2.2 Information flow-upwards, i.e
Page 67 and 68: Commission (EC/EU) has established
Page 69 and 70: Figure 3.3 Relevant intensity of WT
Page 71 and 72: Box 3.2 Regional Trade Agreements (
Page 73 and 74: Trade Related Aspects of Intellectu
Page 75 and 76: Agreement on the application of san
Page 77 and 78: country or materially retards the e
Page 79 and 80: Relevance of the furniture sector T
Page 81 and 82:
3.4.2 Other countries’ access to
Page 83 and 84:
Table 3.2 Top 10 buyers of the Paki
Page 85 and 86:
Arabian market. Here again, there i
Page 87 and 88:
• Material from China is being us
Page 89 and 90:
4.2 Obstacles and shortcomings - im
Page 91 and 92:
Raw material recovery Raw material
Page 93 and 94:
• Consistent policy for supportin
Page 95 and 96:
A short-term but maybe a costly mea
Page 97 and 98:
5 Export services in Pakistan 5.1 E
Page 99 and 100:
5.1.3 Federation of Pakistan Chambe
Page 101 and 102:
• Pakistan International Freight
Page 103 and 104:
The lessons learnt here could be re
Page 105 and 106:
6 Conclusion and recommendations 6.
Page 107 and 108:
6.2 Critical success factors • A
Page 109 and 110:
6.4 Global value chains 6.4.1 Poten
Page 111 and 112:
Benefits All timber tends to be air
Page 113 and 114:
• Optimise cutting; • Calculati
Page 115 and 116:
6.6.5 If we had US$100,000: A techn
Page 117 and 118:
• To modernise such a laboratory,
Page 119 and 120:
Annexes Annex A — Sources of info
Page 121 and 122:
• Federmobili information on the
Page 123 and 124:
• National Home Furnishings Assoc
Page 125 and 126:
International Trade Centre 115
show all

The Furniture Sector in Pakistan: Export performance and ... - TRTA i

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?