A joint venture agreement was signed between Japanese and Pakistani companies to set up Aisha Steel Mills Limited, the largest steel plant of its kind in Pakistan to produce value added cold rolled coils/sheets for engineering and automobile sectors. The total investment in the project is expected to be at $100 million.
According to a press release issued here on Tuesday the agreement was signed between Japan based Universal Metal Corporation, a steel processor and export of metals, Metal One Corporation, largest metals trader of the world and a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation and Sojitz Corporation of Japan and Arif Habib Securities Limited last week.
The project will be set up using state of the art process equipment procured from renowned Japanese and European manufacturers including Push Pull Pickling Line & Cold Reversing and Skin Pass Mill will be supplied by JP Steel Plantech Company, Japan, batch annealing furnace by Ebner-austria; and Recoiling Line and Electrolytic Cleaning Line from Tanisaka Iron Works Limited and Hotani Japan.
The manufacturing facilities set up under the project mainly involve processing of hot rolled coils into cold rolled coils (CRC) for thin gauges (0.15 to 0.50 mm and maximum width of 1219 mm) for use in the automobile and engineering sectors. Other uses of the product are electric appliances, motorcycle, bicycle and industrial applications.
The availability of locally manufactured CRCs will further boost usage of steel and make the industry competitive. The investment will generate direct employment for approximately 450 for managing the project whilst indirect employment for the services and trade related sectors is estimated to be 1200.-PR