RAWALPINDI, Aug 12: The first meeting of the committee on development of steel industry formed by Engineering Development Board (EDB) to firm up recommendations for the steel policy was held in Islamabad on Tuesday.

Chairing the meeting the patron-in-chief of Pakistan Melters Association Masood Gul called on members of the committee to concentrate on development of steel industry rather than focusing on tariff matters.

He suggested that steel cities in different zones of the country with modern infrastructure should be established. He urged the government to provide land on buy-back arrangement basis. He also underlined the burning issues of the steel industry such as dearth of skilled labour, modernisation of existing mills and identification of processes of steel-making.

The meeting underlined the need for a value-chain analysis of the industry and benchmarking in order to provide the product at an affordable price to the consumers. Issues regarding energy conservation, capacity building and importance of high-speed steel rolling mills also came under discussion.

The PCSIR representative informed the meeting that about 1,000 millions tons of ore reserves were available in the country, which needs a little up-gradation. He said that at the laboratory level they had been successful in making steel from iron ore found in Kalabagh.

The meeting was informed that the installed melting capacity of the existing units in the country was 5 million tons, while the utilisation is in the range of 2.5 to 3 million tons due to various reasons.