KARACHI – Tuwairqi Steel Mills Limited (TSML), a subsidiary of Al Tuwairqi Holding of Saudi Arabia, and STX Corporation of South Korea have agreed to collaborate in a bid to develop TSML DRI Plant’s capacity to produce Hot Briquetted Iron (HBI). The two parties have reached agreement during a recent meeting held at TSML head office where TSML Director (Projects) Zaigham Adil Rizvi and STX Corporation Team Leader Sang-min Han signed a MoM (menmorandum of meeting).
Under this MoM, STX will support TSML in producing Hot-Briquetted Iron in TSML’s DRI Plant. HBI is a manufactured product with an identifiable production cost structure and year-round operation which allows producers the option to offer long-term supply contracts. On this occasion, STX Corporation Team Leader Sang-min Han said, “we foresee an export potential to South Korea, Japan and China for HBI, produced by TSML to the range of around 0.4 MTPA – 0.5 MTPA.”
He informed that the use of low residual, high iron content HBI, in combination with scrap and other metals such as pig iron providing steelmakers more control over the cost of liquid steel, when producing any grade of steel and the ability to compete in markets that are beyond the scope of total scrap processing. He added that, “it is a matter of great pride for Pakistan that it would be producing one of the most favoured raw materials for quality steel making for HBI, upon the completion of the first phase of TSML.”
He was of the view that currently, Pakistan is among the countries that rely mostly on imports, when it comes to heavy mechanical structures and engineering goods. “By producing high-quality steel within Pakistan, such equipment can be manufactured locally by value addition with the help of downstream industries,” he concluded.
