KARACHI: Construction work on at least 300 projects in Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur has come to a halt as builders’ boycott of purchasing steel bars at arbitrarily high rates enters its third week.

This may cause a delay in handing over the possession of apartments to the allottees at the scheduled time.

While claiming a rise in steel bar prices to an unprecedented Rs350,000 per tonne, Association of Builders and Developers of Pakistan (ABAD) Senior Vice Chairman Khawar Munir has announced that the suspension of steel buying would continue until the manufacturers bring down prices to a normal level.

He said the construction activities have already slowed down across the country due to persistent political and economic instability coupled with massive hikes in building materials mainly steel bars and cement.

“A massive hike in steel bars through cartelisation has resulted in manifold increase in construction cost of projects,’ he deplored.

A 50kg cement bag now costs over Rs1,000. Suspension in construction activities would also hit 72 industries related to the construction industry, he said.

Mr Khawar urged the government to take notice of the cartelisation of steel manufacturers in pushing up steel bar prices. Meanwhile, Pakistan Association of Large Steel Producers Secretary General Wajid Bukhari outrightly rejected irresponsible and misleading statements by an ABAD representative.

Presently the price of rebars ranges between Rs280,000-305,000 per tonne and not Rs350,000 as quoted by the ABAD representative which is a misrepresentation of facts.

Stopping genuine builders from buying steel who have taken billions of rupees from their clients with a promise of timely possession is an illegal act, he slammed, adding that a few builders are acting like a mafia or a cartel.

There are about 400 steel units in the country and no cartelisation can take place given a large number of steel manufacturers, he claimed. The reality of the situation is that due to scarcity of raw materials, some 30pc units are non-operational.

The running units are operating below 50pc capacity. These now procure locally generated steel scrap. Due to the sudden closure of scrap imports, the local scrap prices have jumped from Rs120 per kg to Rs195 per kg. Also, the input costs of chemicals, gas, power, freight etc, went up by 25-30pc.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2023