Hasty decision to start battery costs PSM millions

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KARACHI – The administration of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) is incurring an expenditure of Rs 30 million every month in terms of its gas utility bill due to its hasty decision to keep Coke Oven Battery-1 heated at a time when it faces an acute shortage of raw material (coal and iron ore).
The battery was fired by the suspended PSM Chief Executive Officer Imtiaz Lodhi on December 1, 2010, by commencing the pre-heating process of the battery for the production of coke, while he vowed that the production of the mill in January 2011 would be ramped up to 70 percent.
But the predicted outcome was not in the offing and his decision of lighting the battery proved to be overly rapid with the mills unable to not even complete its target of buying 40,000 metric tonnes of local iron ore for this month and managed to have only 32,000 metric tonnes instead.
It has been learnt that the contract of reconstructing the battery has been bagged by a renowned Ukranian Company named Concord Industrial Project Limited last year and it alongside engineers of the BMRE department and Coke Oven by-Product (COBP) department reconstructed the battery in the stipulated time.
Sources informed Pakistan Today that the Ukranian Company urged the administration of PSM not to fire the battery, but the suspended CEO ignored the warnings of the said company and lit the battery and is now forcing the mills to bear a loss of Rs 30 million a month in terms of its gas costs just to keep the battery heated up.
Furthermore, the mills are currently utilsing local iron ore which is apparently detrimental to the long term usage of the Coke Oven battery, sources said, adding that the severity of the situation could be gauged by the action of the administration of the mills that went on mining the iron ore and used up at least 200,000 tonnes of iron ore in this process.
But the hasty action of the mills cannot be sustained for long, sources reasoned. At the time of preheating process of the battery, the suspended CEO claimed to have five ships loaded with raw material by January 2011, but the poor quality of raw material used by the mills shows poor vision on the part of the corporation with regards to the lack of ensured and continuous supply of the raw material, sources said. It is pertinent to mention that coke is the basic raw material in the steel making.