‘POSCO to invest $200 mn for expansion of Tuwairqi Steel Mills'

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Board of Investment (BoI) Saleem H. Mandviwalla said on Friday that, South Korea's POSCO, the fourth largest steelmaker in the world, would invest $200 million to expand the production capacity of Tuwairqi Steel Plant in Port Qasim, Karachi.

He stated this after a meeting with a delegation of POSCO Ltd. of South Korea headed by Baek, SVP, POSCO, who called on Saleem H. Mandviwalla here on Friday.

In this regard, he informed that an MOU of joint venture between Posco and Tuwarqai will be signed by next month in the presence of Government of Sindh.

The JV of the companies to producing steel products for automobiles and construction goods is set to be completed in 2015 with an annual production capacity of 2 million tonnes.

The POSCO in Pakistan will be a great success not only in monetary terms but its position as a technology leader in the steel sector from which Pakistan can benefit to a larger extent.

The gap between demand and supply is met through imports and the demand for steel products is around 8.00 million tonnes against the supply of around 2 million tones, said by Chairman BOI.

Baek, SVP, POSCO Korea affirmed that the construction unit POSCO Engineering & Construction will build the plant with the side aim of winning other such plant deals in Pakistan.

Informing about POSCO, he said, current steel production of POSCO is around 37 million tonnes per annum whereas in 2010 its revenues stood at $45 billion.

It has been ranked at 4th position among all the steel producing companies of the world whereas it is the top position in Asia.

The POSCO has its presence in a number of countries such as China, India, Myanmar, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, USA, Australia, Canada and Vietnam.

Both POSCO and Al Tuwairqi Holding of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (the parent company of TSML) are in the steel business.

POSCO has been in the steel business for the last four decades whereas Al Tuwairqi has been in the business since the late 1980s.

Al Tuwairqi Holding is establishing a state-of-the-art steel complex with an operational capacity of 1.28 million tonnes per annum of DRI plant in the first phase at Port Qasim in Karachi.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011