PESHAWAR, Feb 13: The steel industry is modifying its manufacturing plants to produce earthquake-resistant steel bars to fulfil the growing demand of the construction sector in quake-porn areas of the country.

A Peshawar-based foundry last week started trial production of Thermo Mechanically Treated (TMT) steel and three other steel-manufacturing units – one in Karachi and two in Lahore – would start production within a couple of months, market sources told Dawn.

TMT steel would replace TOR steel products abundantly being used in the construction industry since 1970s. TOR steel bars having elongation less than 16 per cent could not sustain sudden shocks like earthquake with high altitude, the sources said.

Numan Wazir, CEO of the Frontier Foundry, Peshawar, said the construction industry depended on TOR steel because till date there was no choice of quake-resistant TMT steel in Pakistan.

He said use of TOR steel having less than 16 per cent elongation had been banned in Europe since 1970s and India’s building codes also prohibited its use in seismic zones.

Mr Wazir said that by next month they would be able to produce 300 tons of TMT steel per day which would have 80 per cent more elongation.The steel industry, he said, needed to almost double its production capacity by upgrading equipment to meet the requirement of quake-proof structures, adding some other steel-manufacturers were also in the process of starting production of the same type of steel.

Officials say the country will need more than eight million tons steel to meet the growing demand in the construction industry and reconstruction projects in earthquake-affected areas.

Muner Ahmad, deputy director-general of the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority, said the government was taking steps to help the steel industry start TMT steel production.

According to him, at least four local steel units have been given necessary guidelines to start production of TMT steel.