Chinese and Korean steel manufactures are keen to invest in steel sector of Pakistan by setting up a steel mill at Kalabagh to bridge the demand-supply gap, an official said. The official said that Korean steel firm POSCO and Hong Kong based Chinese steel company Amlong have held a number of meetings with the officials of the Engineering Development Board (EDB) and local steel manufactures to know their future production plans and expected gap prior to taking a final decision.
An official said this was the 11th time that the officials of Korean company have come to Pakistan for talks with the officials on making investment in steel sector. When contacted, an official said that current gap of about 3.5 million tons could be much higher in next few years. The existing demand and supply gap is met through imports. It is expected that the demand for steel products will be around 14 million tons against the supply of around 10 million tons in 2015.
Meanwhile, sources said the government wanted POSCO to invest in Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) expansion, but Koreans did not seem interested. The officials of the ministry of industries reportedly offered the Korean delegation to visit PSM site, which was politely turned down by them. The Koreans looked more interested in setting up a steel mill in Kalabagh.
Sources said setting up a steel mill in Kalabagh was not a new project as an initiative was already taken by the previous government by facilitating Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between a local steel mill manufacturer and Chinese company to set up steel mill at Kalabagh. The MoU was signed between the two companies in 1996-97 for the first time, but no further progress could be made because of the government change and other factors. According to them recently another Hong Kong based Chinese steel company had expressed interest in setting up a steel mill at Kalabagh and visited the site and collected sample of iron ore for analysis.
On Thursday, a six-member delegation of the Korean firm held a detailed discussion with CEO of the EDB, Aitzaz A Niazi. A detailed presentation was given to the delegation on steel sector of Pakistan and potential benefits for setting up a steel mill at Kalabagh.
The visiting delegation was informed that Kalabagh is a natural site for setting up a steel mill because of availability of necessary raw materials such as iron ore, coal, dolomite, etc, within 13kms radius. The proven iron ore reserves at Kalabagh stand at around 350 millions tons. After receiving the presentation, the delegation agreed to send a technical team to visit Kalabagh for conducting feasibility on setting up a steel mill.
The details of the iron ore in Pakistan along with reserves and its grades were also provided to the visitors. It was suggested that the firm may like to invest independently in the development of any one of the mines or go for joint venture with local company. The delegation also held meetings with secretary ministry of industries and production, heads of Heavy Mechanical Complex, Pakistan Steel Mills and other units. The visitors were briefed about various expansion projects of the units and invited to collaborate.
Comments
Comments are closed.