January 7, 2006	Saturday	Zilhaj 6, 1426

ISLAMABAD, Jan 6: Minister for Privatization and Investment Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has directed the Inter-Ministerial Committee to ensure the early resolution of all the issues before the holding of pre-bid conference for Pakistan Steel Mills Corporation (PSMC), scheduled on January 16.

An official announcement issued here said that the minister issued these instructions while reviewing the progress of privatisation process of PSMC on Friday.

The minister said that all stakeholders should perform in a proactive manner for timely completion of the transaction. The privatization of PSMC was essential for the expansion and enhanced capacity, which required fresh investment of $1.2 billion for the expansion of the unit to achieve minimum 3 million tons production capacity while around Rs12 billion were required for renovation of Coke Oven Batteries (COB) and other areas, he stated.

Mr Shaikh further stated that the privatization of PSMC would be beneficial for both the employees and the company and efforts were being made to safeguard the employees’ rights and interests.

PSMC chairman Gen (Retd) Abdul Qayyum assured full support to all the stakeholders to take the transaction forward by extending maximum cooperation for its completion.

The committee was informed that the pre-qualified parties were currently completing the due diligence of the transaction in the data room and they have also conveyed their first round of comments on bidding documents.

PSMC is the largest and only integrated steel manufacturing plant, with an annual designed production capacity of 1.1 million tonnes. PSMC complex includes coke oven batteries, a sintering plant, blast furnaces, steel converters, bloom and slab casters, billet mill, hot and cold rolling mills, galvanizing unit and 165-mv of own power generation units, supported by various other ancillary units.

PSMC manufactures a wide mix of products, which includes both flat and long products.