Industries adjust production tactics in wake of load shedding, recession

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Mansoor Ahmad
LAHORE: While most of the Punjab industries are facing downturn due to electricity and gas shortages few entrepreneurs have employed innovative energy generation techniques to cut cost of production.

The News found that most of the industries in the province are under severe pressure due to long load shedding periods and cut in gas supplies.

Some industries have designed their production lines in such a manner so as to reduce their costs even if they have to run their own generators during load shedding.

The prudent manufacturers in the province realized that their units do not consume the peak power all the times. Some machines having higher capacity run for three or four hours. Some operate for 8 hours in 24 hours.

Former chairman Pakistan Association of Auto Parts and Accessories Manufacturer (PAAPAM) Syed Nabeel Hashmi said that he has installed three power generators in his factory.

He said the one running on LPG is of 630KVA that he operates at the time of load shedding if peak power is required in the factory. He said LPG run generator was installed, as the natural gas supply is erratic and remains suspended for three months of winter.

He said if the load required by the factory is less he uses the 430KVA generator that runs on diesel.

He said though the cost of electricity generation from diesel is very high; however the cost of operating 430KVA diesel run generator is less than the cost of operating a 630KVA LPG fired generator.

He said when the load required is even less he operates 100KVA generators that costs much less than operating a 430KVA generator.

He said after bearing the initial cost of buying three generators the recurring expenses of power generation in case of load shedding have been controlled and production costs reduced.

The News found that a number of medium sized industries particularly have adopted the same strategy in order to minimize their costs.

Earlier most of them made the mistake of installing a generator of high capacity that could run the entire factory.

They used to waste fuel when the load requirement in the factory was much lower.

However since production processes are such that certain machines have to be run all the time the manufacturers had to run the voltage generators to ensure timely execution of their orders.

The auto-vending industries of the province that restricted their supplies to the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have also diversified their activities.

They are now tapping the local spare part markets by producing parts of older models.

The global recession has also helped their cause as the new car sales declined worldwide and the demand for parts of older cars increased.

A number of auto-vendors are now supplying parts for old cars in the international markets. The orders are small by global a standard that is the reason that the suppliers from other exporting countries do not show interest. The orders a feasible for Pakistani vendors get small orders from local OEMs to make low cost quality auto-parts.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=144157