Production of Hot Rolled Coils (HRC) has come to halt at Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) as its Hot Strip Mill stopped working due to some technical problems. Sources said that Hot Strip Mill of PSM suddenly went out of operation on Monday at about 2 pm, when one motor of its main drive machine suddenly burnt.
Repairing of the motor will take some 3-5 days and during these days furnished products of HRC could not be produced, they added. "Some problems were observed during the routine inspection of the motors as 'Carbon Bushes' of the motor were damaged, therefore, to replace these 'Carbon Bushes' production was stopped," said Absar Nabi, APEO production PSM.
He said that the mill had the capacity to produce some 0.5 million tons HRC annually, however due to shortage of raw materials presently it was producing 300-500 tons per hour against the capacity of 1500 tons per hour. Talking about the resumption of production, he said this was a mega motor and would take few days to complete the repairing/maintenance work.
Chief Spokesman Pakistan Steel Shazim Akhtar also confirmed that Hot Strip Mill had stopped working on Monday. However, he said that the mill has been shutdown for the routine maintenance work and no technical fault was occurred in the motor. "This is not a lengthy maintenance and HRC production will resume in next two days," he added. When he was asked as to why the management had stop production of Hot Strip Mill without any prior intimation, he said that he did know the reason.