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Tractors’ sales surge to 26,816 units
By Aamir Shafaat Khan
 About
200 vendors of the tractor manufacturing industry have
inducted 15-20 per cent new hands since June to meet the
surging production and sales of tractors and the robust
future demand.
At least 150-200 persons were employed in a single vending
unit ahead of June this year. These vendors have also made
further investment since then for procuring new tools and
machinery.
Chairman Pakistan Automotive Parts and Accessories
Manufacturers Association (PAAPAM) Tariq Nazir told Dawn
from Lahore that the vendors had increased their production
of parts and accessories by at least 50 per cent in the last
five to six months.
He added that most of the workers had been hired on
permanent basis in view of good production and sales
prospects of tractors production and sales under various
government schemes.
Mr Tariq said that since the tractor companies, having
potential to export the farm machine, are not allowed to
export directly, some traders are indirectly exporting
tractors to Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh etc for the
last six months.
He said that if the local industry was allowed to export
directly, the vendors industry has the capacity to further
increase their production capacity by 10-20 per cent to meet
the demand.
He claimed that Pakistan was the largest producer of
cheap tractors in the world. For example, he said
that locally made tractor is Rs100,000 cheaper than
the one made in India as the 95 per cent of the
parts used in the manufacturing of tractors are
produced locally by the vendors.
According to figures of Pakistan Automotive
Manufacturers Association (PAMA) the overall tractor
sales surged to 26,816 units in July-Nov, 2009 as
compared to 20,249 units in the same period of 2008.
Out of this, Fiat sold 11,453 units as compared to
11,174 units while Massey Ferguson sales had gone up
substantially to 15,363 units from 9,075 units.
Overall production of tractors rose to 27,643 units
from 21,224 units. Fiat produced 11,918 units as
compared to 11,581 units, while Massey Ferguson
production went up to 15,725 from 9,643 units.
Senior Executive Officer Millat Tractors Limited and
member executive committee PAMA Sohail Bashir Rana
linked the improvement in sales to 50 per cent share
of the company in the overall 10,000 tractors being
delivered to the farmers under Benazir Tractor
Scheme.
He said due to increasing demand the company had
increased its production capacity and the vendors
have also geared up their efforts in providing parts
and accessories at a fast pace. In the last three
years, around 500-600 people got the job in the
company directly.
He said those vendors, who had suffered decline in
sale orders from other auto sectors, had now focused
their attention towards production of tractors parts
in order to meet the rising demand of the farm
machine.
Mr Sohail said that the Punjab government had also
advertised a Green Tractor Scheme for providing
10,000 tractors to the farmers and the company aims
to provide the maximum units under this scheme. He
added that the Sindh government had also launched a
scheme in which 5,000 tractors would be provided to
the farmers on subsidised rates.
He further said that increase in support price
especially of wheat to Rs950 from Rs450 has
encouraged farmers to buy tractors freely.
Courtesy: The DAWN
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Pakissan.com;
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