Ship breaking revival meets country’s iron, steel demand

Pakistan’s ship breaking industry is currently meeting 70 percent of the country’s iron and steel requirement with the revival of work in Gaddani.With the increase in activity

at the Gaddani shipyard, the number of people employed there has risen to 12,000.
The activity there has broken last 12 years’ record with more than 50 big ships being hammered currently, said Mehmood Molvi, a member of Pakistan Ship Breaking Association.
He said that 95 percent of the old scrap is recycled and reused. The industry meets country’s demand for steel, steel-related products and non-ferrous products and machinery. He said that Pakistan Steel Mills has not been working on its full capacity and cannot fulfill the country’s requirements.
Most of the re-rolling and re-melting mills are once again dependant on the Gaddani ship breakers for supplies. Hundreds of steel re-rolling and re-melting mills in Pakistan depend heavily on the ship breaking industry for the supply of ship plates.
Even wash basins, toilets, wooden doors and such other things in old ships are reused, he added. He added that ship prices in the international market are high, but the increasing demand at home for steel and steel products has led to purchase of more and more ships for dismantling. Purchasing even expensive vessels is profitable because of high demand, he said.
On Saturday, a very large crude carrier was brought to Gadani seashore to be dismantled. Molvi added that a few years ago the ship breaking industry was on the verge of collapse with little activity there.
This made room for smuggling of pipes form Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet states, which fulfilled the requirements for sometime, but then even that stopped, putting the local mills in a very difficult situation.
Amir Ali Pabani, a member of Karachi Iron and Steel Merchants Association, said that currently Gaddani ship breaking is meeting most of the requirement of re-rolling mills. About 20 percent requirement is fulfilled by import from Ukraine, Turkey and former Soviet countries and by Pakistan Steel.
But material supplied by ship breakers is much cheaper than that sold by Pakistan Steel. Gadani ship breaking raw material is available at cheaper rate of Rs55,000 per ton.