Dawn reported that the recent economic recession presents serious challenges to Pakistan Steel not only from local competitors but also from international steel producers.

Quality is considered the most pertinent rule for competitiveness in Pakistan Steel but the low cost substandard imported steel products are putting continuous pressure on Pakistan Steel and construction industries about using certified and quality steel products.

The global economic recession also affected the steel industry and the prices of imported substandard steel products and raw materials disturbed the global scenario of steel production and its sales. This mostly affected the countries which are fulfilling their requirements through imports.

Currently the supply of raw material including Iron Ore is improving and the production is also gradually increasing. Procurement of raw materials are always made through tenders floated in national and international press, bids are opened by a Price Committee constituted by the Government of Pakistan. All decisions are made on merit by the Price Committee in line with PPRA rules. Contracts are signed with the successful bidders and are executed accordingly.

Pakistan Steel is operating in an environment of fairly tough competition against imported steel products despite the fact that its existing capacity of 1.1 million tonnes is an uneconomic size and therefore its unit costs remains higher than what it would be for an optimally sized steel mill.

(Sourced from Dawn.com)