South Korea’s largest steel manufacturer, Pohang Iron and Steel Company Limited (Posco), will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Tuwairqi Steel Mills Limited (TSML) on Saturday to expand production capacity of Tuwairqi’s steel plant at Karachi’s Port Qasim.
“Posco, which is the world’s fourth largest steelmaker, is investing $200 million to expand the production capacity of Tuwairqi’s steel plant at Port Qasim,” Board of Investment (BOI) Chairman Saleem H Mandviwalla said on Friday.
The MoU for this joint venture will be signed on Saturday in Karachi in the presence of Sindh government representatives, he added.
He said that initially Posco would be taking 15 per cent stake in Tuwairqi. The joint venture to produce steel products for automobiles and construction goods will be completed in 2015 with an annual production capacity of two million tons, he said.
Mandviwalla said that Posco would be a great success in Pakistan in monitory terms. “The gap between steel’s demand and supply in Pakistan is met through imports. It is expected that the demand for steel products will be around 18 million tons against the supply of around 10 million tons in 2015,” he said.
The BOI chairman said that Posco would also set up a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in the country.
Both Posco and Al Tuwairqi have been in the steel business for many decades.
Al Tuwairqi Holding is setting up a state-of-the-art steel plant with an operational capacity of 1.28 million tons per annum of direct reduced iron (DRI) at Port Qasim.
The BOI chairman said that the investment into the country this year had been around $1.6 billion.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 10th, 2011.
Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Urdu: اسلامی جمہوریۂ پاکِستان) is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a 1,046-kilometre (650 mi) coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west,India in the east and China in the far northeast.[7] Tajikistan also lies very close to Pakistan but is separated by the narrow Wakhan Corridor. Strategically, Pakistan is located in a position between the important regions of South Asia, Central Asia and the greater Middle East.[8]
The region forming modern Pakistan was the site of several ancient cultures including theneolithic Mehrgarh and the bronze era Indus Valley Civilisation. Subsequently it was the recipient of Hindu, Persian, Indo-Greek, Islamic, Turco-Mongol, and Sikh cultures through several invasions and/or settlements. As a result the area has remained a part of numerous empires and dynasties including the Indian empires, Persian empires, Arab caliphates, Mongol,Mughal, Sikh and British Empire. Pakistan gained independence from the British Empire in 1947 after a struggle for independence, led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah, that sought the partition of India and the creation of an independent state for the Muslim majority populations of the eastern and western regions of British India.[9] With the adoption of its constitution in 1956, Pakistan became an Islamic republic.[10] In 1971, an armed conflict in East Pakistan resulted in the creation of Bangladesh.[11]
Pakistan is a federal parliamentary republic consisting of four provinces and four federal territories. With over 170 million people, it is the sixth most populous country in the world[2] and has the second largest Muslim population after Indonesia.[12] It is an ethnically andlinguistically diverse country with a similar variation in its geography and wildlife. With a semi-industrialized economy, it is the 27th largest in the world in terms of purchasing power. Since gaining independence, Pakistan's history has been characterised by periods of military rule,political instability and conflicts with neighbouring India. The country faces challenging problems including terrorism, poverty, illiteracy and corruption.
Pakistan has the seventh largest standing armed force and is the only Muslim-majority nation to possess nuclear weapons. It is designated as a major non-NATO ally of the United States and a strategic ally of China.[13][14] It is a founding member of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (now the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation)[15] and a member of the United Nations,[16] Commonwealth of Nations,[17] Next Eleven economies and the G20 developing nations.
No comments:
Post a Comment