Pakistan Textile: After the hit, a hint of relief - By Insight Research
Jun 25 2025
Insight Securities
- Despite facing challenging times, Pakistan’s textile sector remained resilient with value added sector depicting healthy volumetric growth and overall sector contributing ~56% to total exports in 11MFY25. However, listed players has underperformed the index as operating environment was not very conducive for the sector, mainly due to elevated energy costs, shift to the normal tax regime and policy lapses for local industries. Additionally, subdued demand from the European market kept prices under pressure and local cotton production has fallen significantly by ~34% compared to SPLY, forcing the industry to rely more on imported cotton, which ultimately hurt the spinning sector.
- Despite ongoing challenges, we believe most textile stocks are trading at a discount and offers attractive valuations compared to historical multiples. Recent developments such as sharp interest rate cuts, reduction in electricity tariffs coupled with the potential shift in global trade amid US tariffs, may induce a gradual recovery for textile sector. Within our coverage, ILP and NML remain our top picks.
- Pakistan, which directs ~17%–18% of its total exports and ~25% of its textile exports to the U.S. market, remains relatively well-positioned compared to regional peers under the current U.S. tariff structure. For reference, Pakistan’s tariff rate stands at (29%), while competing countries face higher effective tariffs rates, including China (145%), Bangladesh (37%), Vietnam (46%), and Sri Lanka (44%).