PSM matters

The government has changed its stance about the future of the vitally important state-owned enterprise Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) a number of times. Until 2019, the government was not considering privatising PSM, and the federal ministers and advisors had been assuring the nation, time and again, that the organisation would be revived and restructured, on a priority basis, to make it a profitable and competitive entity. More than two-and-a-half years have passed and still no concrete steps have been taken for the company’s revival or for its divestment. There have been many failed attempts to privatise PSM in the past. Currently, PSM is in a state of disrepair and putting it into operation with the existing plant would not be feasible both technically and economically. Serious damage has been done to the critical equipment that remained non-operational since June 2015. Given this background and today’s global investment climate, it is not likely that investors would come forward to take over the closed mills. To revive PSM operations, a new steelmaking process is required to be adopted, necessitating a minimum injection of a hundred million dollars.

It seems that the government is not bothered by the unemployment of thousands of PSM workers and the loss of the daily production of steel. Currently, the country is spending billions of dollars to import steel products.

Hussain Siddiqui

Islamabad