REFERENCE your editorial ‘Shambolic state of Steel Mill’ (Oct 29). Undoubtedly the pathetic state of Pakistan Steel, the biggest industrial unit of the country, is a matter of great concern. The closure of the steel mill due to the leak in the blast furnace, the heart of the steel plant, reflects poor maintenance.

The explanation given by the chairman is unfounded because there is a schedule for maintenance of the various sections of the plant and it is during the schedule that such faults are detected and rectified. There are six major reasons for its downfall: (1) neglecting maintenance, (2) massive corruption, (3) relief packages with lowest production, (4) union interference, (5) over-staffing and (6) appointing people having no technical know-how about the steel industry.

The manpower requirement to run the mill at full capacity of 1.1m tonne is recommended as 10,500 employees, but if you employ over 16,000, it can never be viable. In 2011 the Russian offered assistance worth $500m but we failed to utilise the offer

There is no point in providing more relief packages. In fact, the price offered of Rs21.50bn was peanuts. The plant is spread over 18,660 acres. Now it is a dead plant and any buyer would be eyeing the land instead of the plant. As the land alone costs over Rs100bn, this point should be kept in mind while going for its privatisation.

M. Ahmed

Karachi

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2014