Having added Rs53 billion losses to its stock of Rs258bn debt and liabilities in 16 months, Pakistan Steel Mills has remained shut for the past three weeks and there are no signs of its immediate revival.
This is for the first time since its establishment three decades ago that “the mother of all industries” has come to a complete halt mainly because of poor maintenance and repairs as required by standard operating procedures and operational manuals despite internal warnings.
The federal government is yet to order an inquiry into the matter, although the PSM management, while securing Rs18.5bn budget support, had promised in April to achieve 50 per cent capacity utilisation in October and earn a profit of about Rs250 million in January next year with 77pc capacity utilisation.
In October, the plant could produce only 1870 tons of iron and steel against its daily capacity of 91,667 tons. This comes at a time when the government has sought applications for appointment of financial advisers for PSM’s privatisation.
Informed sources said the plant faced a technical fault because it was not being run as envisaged in the operational manual and the quality and quantity of the blast furnace and other input materials were not aligned to the machine design, affecting its production cycle rhythm and sustainability.
