Federal Secretary for Production Gul Mohammad Rind admitted that Pakistan Steel Mills was utilising only 12% of its production capacity while two billion rupees was being used every month as salary for twenty thousand employees. He added that at present the organisation was suffering a loss of one billion rupees every month.
Replying to a host of questions by media personnel on Thursday, the production secretary hoped that Pakistan Steel was expected to attain 30% production in the next few months. He said National Bank of Pakistan has not turned down the request of a three billion loan to the Steel Mills and a summary has been moved to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet for approval.
He said there were financial problems in purchasing raw material from Iran as the Iranian company had demanded that arrears be cleared first and then it will enter into a new deal due to which the production was affected. The secretary said when the bail out package was given, Pak Steel Mills Administration had committed to raise the production to 25% but it failed to honour its promise.
He said raw material has now been purchased from Australia and soon two ships would reach Karachi port. Once the material is available, the production would be increased from 12% to 30%.
To a question, the secretary said a delegation of Ministry of Production would be going to Russia to discuss the expansion of Steel Mills with Russian officials.
