KARACHI: Describing the step as much needed and timely, the Pakistan Ship-Breakers Association (PSBA) lauded the imposition of 15 percent regulatory duty on the import of all steel billets, steel bars and wire rods.
According to APSBA Chairman Dewan Rizwan Farooqi, since past year, steel billets, wire rod and steel bars have been flooded into Pakistani market which has turned the local industry unviable.
The PSBA chairman stated that since 2010, the ship-breaking industry had been providing 1.2 million tonnes of steel raw materials annually to the re-rolling, wire rod and steel melting industry. The ship-breaking industry though massive capital investments has ramped up its ability to cater to Pakistan’s downstream industries by taking its annual capacity from 150,000 mt per annum in 2007 to 1.2 million tons per annum in 2010. This has allowed the ship-breaking industry to provide the Balochistan province and the government of Pakistan with much needed revenue to the tune of Rs11 billion annually.
