March 2, 2006	Thursday	Safar 1, 1427

LAHORE, March 1: All Pakistan Steel Re-Rolling Mills Association has urged he government to review its decision of allowing duty free import of mild steel structure from India as it might seriously hit the local industry.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday Hafiz Akbar, Patron-in-Chief of the association, said that the local industry was fully capable to meet the domestic demand as well as provide material for reconstruction in the quake-hit areas.

He said that annual production capacity of over 250 re-rolling mills was in excess of four million tons while a recent survey showed that the domestic consumption was around 3.3m tons. He said that exemption of import duty on mild steel would make Indian products 20 to 25 per cent cheaper than Pakistani products.—APP