EDB workshop recommendation: steel units should get technical assistance to upgrade furnaces

The Engineering Development Board (EDB), working on the energy sector, has planned to set up a workshop on energy conservation to tackle the current energy crisis.
In a workshop, titled 'Challenges and Way Forward in the Steel Sector of Pakistan', where a group of energy conservationists took part, it was urged that manufacturing units should get technical assistance in upgrading the current furnaces to introduce a standard design.
The industry also recommended that multinationals (MNCs) and global players should be attracted to Pakistan to penetrate the world market, since small units had failed to improve steel products export from the country.
The workshop also gave a package of recommendations by 127 stakeholders of the sector. A government team, led by Minister for Industries, Production and Special Initiatives, Salman Taseer, was present. Other members were Industries, Production and Special Initiatives Secretary Shahab Khawaja, Pakistan Steel Chairman Major General Muhammad Javed and the board's chief executive officer.
Chief executive officers of major steel makers and their associations' office holders represented the industry, demanding that the government must keep energy and raw material going. The government officials told them that the government was forming an 'implementation committee' to meet regularly and implement their recommendations.
The EDB chief executive officer then said a similar energy workshop would be held next month to form a viable policy. The steel industry was happy over the current tariff policy, though it suggested that the recommendations be carried on. Another issue, surfaced in the string of suggestions, was availability of skilled workforce needing training centres near their manufacturing units.