April 08, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 19, 2007

ISLAMABAD, April 7: The steel industry has proposed a range of measures including scaling down of sales tax rate in the upcoming budget to revise downward the price of steel products.

The proposals were discussed at length in a meeting held on Saturday at Engineering Development Board (EDB) under the chairmanship chaired by its General Manager S M Adil Shah and attended by representatives of steel manufacturers, re-rollers, ship-breakers and contractors.

The EDB presented a vision for future of steel industry as it had failed to develop its own preferences. The vision says that 20 units of 200,000 tons plus per annum capacity are needed in re-rolling sector.

It further said that at least six mini steel mills using local iron ore and coal should be established for achieving energy efficiency in re-melting. The vision also calls for use of clean scrap in re-melting and cleaner fuel in pre-heating of furnaces of re-rolling for achieving environmental standards.

The importance of technically trained and qualified manpower in re-melting and re-rolling units is also underlined for improving productivity.

The vision also highlighted the issues facing the steel industry which include high prices of steel products, cultural dynamics, human resource, technology, quality, self-sufficiency through local inputs, impact on environment, electricity, deficiency or surplus, tariff and tax structure.

The chairman All Pakistan Contractors Association (APCA) referred to the example of cement where government’s intervention had immediately reduced the prices. But the representatives of steel industry contested his arguments by saying that steel was different commodity and cannot be compared with cement.

The chairman APCA pleaded for a mechanism which would be helpful to bring down the prices of steel bars. The industry claimed that prices of steel bars in Pakistan were cheapest.

However, this claim was contested by chairman APCA by saying that he was getting the material in Afghanistan at the rate of $580 per ton. The representatives of the industry said that the price was unrealistic as its raw material - billets were selling at price of $560 per ton in the international market and you could not add value at the differential of only $20.