The engineering industries

I was amongst the lucky ones to get a chance to take a technical stroll at the wonderful engineering exhibition held at the Expo Centre, in Karachi, recently.
The areas under display varied from aluminium and alloy products, steel products, stainless steel surgical instruments, die and mould steels, electrical appliances, automotive sector, business support centers, machine tools manufacturers, weighing scales, textile outfits, especially stitching machines which like robots were making patterns at a unbelievable.
There were computers and their cousins as well as stalls calling for hair transplant through one follicle (but most people, including me, were shy to go near them although we had lots of questions in our mind).
Replacing steel with aluminium alloy products. Previously the wheel rims of all locally produced cars were made of steel which had a special deep-drawing quality so that it could be formed into sections in cold conditions.
This steel was produced locally at Pakistan Steel and was named after Balochistan Wheels as BWL grade. Its special property was its high elongation values, which allowed it to be formed, and gave it strength.
The thickness of the steel sheet from which the wheel rims are produced is about four millimetre's thick.
With advancement, a number of car manufacturers are going in for aluminium alloys wheel rims, which have similar properties yet, weigh less than steel. This would help in lowering fuel consumption.
Interestingly, these wheels were produced through a process called die casting in which the molten aluminium is poured into dies with a shape similar to that of the wheel rim, although in die casting more defects are possible compared to steel.
Quality control during manufacturing, however, was being maintained by local producers. Cost would hence be the deciding dimension and competition would be severe.
The dies or moulds are mostly produced from a Steel called H-13, a hot working tool steel made by the Peoples Steel Mills, which is a major special steel producer of the country in the public sector.
The prospects of exporting Die Steels are bright; it could be another foreign exchange earner.
From the profile of this industry (People's Steel) one finds that all Leaf Springs (kamanis) are produced at this plant through the Vacuum Degassing process a (very clean way of making steel) and the post-heat treatment is done by local manufacturers in Karachi, Lahore etc.
In fact, our transporters, knowing the good quality of spring steel, overload themselves heavily.
One is amazed to find automotive parts being exported. An organisation doing this is run by an ex F-16 fighter pilot (he is showing his take-off skills!). Parts of tractors are so wonderfully being produced here through a process called Forging (not forgery) in Punjab, Sindh etc They are all of steel, made by a special steel plant.
There are places producing parts for the aircraft industry, for you to have a safe journey. With rapid growth in the consumption of steel, re-rollers from Punjab are trying to set-up big mills in Karachi.
With the Pakistan Steel Mills going in for expansion and the Saudis planning to set up a million tonne capacity plant, the field is ripe for such ventures. Go forward my countrymen; the sky is the limit.
Developing the shipping industry: One area that is slow in moving is the building of the shipping industry in Pakistan.
Once, the Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works was the hub of ship building, but now the vibrancy is missing.
There is a need for reengineering in this field. One of the limitations is the non-availability of wide steel plates, ie of two meters or more in width, as these are not produced by the Pakistan Steel or People's Steel Mill.
Since the cost of investment is high, probably fifty million dollars, investment from the private sector is lacking.
What needs to be done is that the end-users like the shipyard, the Pakistan Navy, pipe manufacturers, the people and Pakistan Steel Mills, the Heavy Mechanical Complex, even some Asian companies like Hyundai or the Japanese Mitsubishi or Chinese giants, can be invited to join hands to put up the wide Strip Rolling Mill, not only in the national interest but in the commercial interest also. The decision needs to be taken at the President of Pakistan's level.
Finally, Some bold decisions have to be taken to give the engineering industry a boost, before god father WTO walks in, in a couple of years time.
Giants like the heavy mechanical complexes need to be revisited, restructured, merged, and the survival and development of special steel manufacturers must be ensured for a better future.
Quality metallurgical engineering graduates from engineering institutions in Sindh, Karachi in particular, should be produced for the growth of future and present metallurgical-based industries.
The Dawood College of Engineering & Technology must be handed over to a joint venture of the Pakistan and Peoples Steel Mill for better education and job placement. So far, there has been no effort in this direction.
To take up all these issues the President needs to call a brain storming session and making the engineering industry an economic arm.
Also, the role of the dormant engineering development board needs to be looked into. Why can't it bring American giants like General Electric, etc in Pakistan as India is doing?
Further, engineering goods manufacturers should read the book "Wealth of nations" by Adam Smith and remember that the fastest growing religion today is globalisation, which is also known as the economic integration of nations.
The word 'restriction' would go in the interests of a better market system and survival would mean producing quality products at the most economical price, leading to individual excellence.
For this, the cost of energy would have to be brought down. How can it be done by importing gas from Iran or Turkmenistan or up building Kalabagh dam or building a nuclear power plant?
It is for the Pakistani Adam Smith (Shaukat Aziz to decide) and he had better do it fast, lest the Indians with a better economic package flood our market. Also, there is need to cut the cost of production, to operate with a zero defect level and to make customer satisfaction Job number one.
One of America's great gun (Eisenhower) once said "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed" Can this be discussed in the Indo-Pak talks as its unfinished agenda?