KARACHI, March 6: An investor has approached the Export Processing Zone Authority (EPZA) for setting up of a steel mill at the Karachi Export Processing Zone (KEPZ), assuring production of around 1.3 million tons per annum, which is more than Pakistan Steel.

This was informed by EPZA chairman Lt-Col (Retd) Syed Akbar Hussain to the members of the Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI).

According to a KATI press release, the EPZA chief said the investor aimed at setting up the mill at 100 acres of land, and it was expected that it would increase the production up to three million tons after two years of production. However, Mr Akbar did not mention which country the investor belongs to and how much investment he intended to make in the steel mill.

He said Sialkot and Risalpur EPZs had almost completed their development phase and would start operation very soon whereas EPZs at Rawalpindi, Multan, Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Quetta, Saindak, Hub, Gwadar, Sukkur, Nooriabad and Mirpur Azad Kashmir are in different stages of planning and establishment.

The EPZA chairman said, in all, five new EPZs would start operations by year-end. He said the Saindak EPZ was being developed with the help of China, and hoped that 20,000 tons of copper and sizable quantities of silver and gold would be made available for exports from Saindak EPZ.

He, however, admitted that the KEPZ performance has been dismal during the last 20 years. The KEPZ could only fetch $76 million from exports last year.

Syed Akbar said there were more than 1,500 EPZs all over the world that had played very important role for their respective countries’ economies. The US has the largest EPZs, crossing over 450 followed by China with 300 EPZs. He said that 20 per cent exports of Bangladesh were being made through EPZs.

Chairman, advisory board of KATI, Shaikh Manzar Alam, said Pakistani investors were setting up units in EPZs of Malaysia, Taiwan, Korea, Sri Lanka and even in Bangladesh instead of investing at the KEPZ.