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.
Source: 15 January 2014
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