KARACHI - The Pakistan Ship Breakers Association (PSBA) has welcomed the levy of 15 per cent regulatory duty on the import of all steel billets, steel bars and wire rods.
Since the past year, steel billets, wire rod and steel bars were being flooded into the Pakistan market by way of dumping from abroad. This made the local industry unviable and therefore one of the local steel manufacturing sectors i.e. wire rod industry had totally shut down.
Dewan Rizwan Farooqi, Chairman PSBA, stated “Since 2010, the ship breaking industry has been providing 1.2 million tons of steel raw materials annually to the re-rolling, wire rod and steel melting industry. The ship breaking industry though massive capital investments has ramped up its ability to cater to Pakistan’s down stream industries by taking its annual capacity from 150,000 mt per annum in 2007 to 1.2 million tons per annum in 2010. This has allowed the ship breaking industry to provide the Balochistan province and the Government of Pakistan with much needed revenue in the tune of Rs 11 billion annually. “We are grateful to the Government of Pakistan in saving Balochistan’s largest industry from collapse and we hope we can continue to play a key role in job creation and revenue generation for Pakistan.”
Industry analysts claim that the ship breaking industry plays a key role in job creation as downstream cottage industries have developed in turn creating livelihood opportunities for more than quarter million people in Pakistan. This move by the government will help in bringing some stability to the local market and curbing revenue drain while providing a level playing field for the local steel sector.
The Pakistan Shipbreakers Association salutes the Government of Pakistan for this bold move which has helped save hundreds of thousands of jobs as well as the local steel industry. We believe that this will not only strengthen revenue collection for the government but will also show the governments commitment to supporting local industries.
The Pakistani ship breaking industry is the country’s largest steel raw material supplier to the re-rolling and wire rod industry. The ship breaking industry has invested over 20 billion rupees in the Balochistan province during the last 5 years and is also the highest revenue contributor from the steel sector in Balochistan.