Since the revival of Gaddani shipyard in Balochistan, the ship breaking industry has been currently meeting 70% iron and steel requirements of the country, Engineering Development Board (EDB) said in its report made public on Wednesday.
Pakistan Ship Breaking Association claims in the report that about 12,000 workers are on work there.
More than 50 big ships are being hammered currently at Gaddani, the highest ever in 12 years.
The EDB said that 95% of the old scrap is recycled and reused, the shipyard industry meets country’s demand for steel, steel related products and non-ferrous products and machinery.
Pakistan Steel Mills now running in loss has not been working on its full capacity and cannot fulfill country’s requirements, so iron and steel obtained from the ship breaking helps meet the high demand, the report said.
Most of the steel re-rolling and re-melting mills in Pakistan depend heavily on the ship breaking industry for the supply of ship plates.
“Purchasing even expensive vessels is profitable because there is very high demand in the country and production is far far below than that ,” the report revealed.
About 20% requirement is fulfilled by imports from Ukraine, Turkey and Russia and by Pakistan steel Mill but iron supplied by ship breakers is much cheaper if compared with Pakistan steel as Gaddani ship breaking raw material is available at cheaper rate of Rs 55,000/tonne.
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