Steel plants

The discovery of iron ore at Chiniot was announced some 26 years ago. Way back in the 1950s, massive reserves of iron ore in Kalabagh were confirmed and in 1956, a German firm even offered to establish steel mills there. Subsequently, another firm successfully made 5,000 tons of high grade steel from the 15,000 tons Kalabagh iron ore in Germany to confirm the suitability of the iron ore and offered in 1967 to set up a steel plant.
In November 1990, the Pakistan Steel Mills submitted PC II to commence work on the Kalabagh Steel Mills project. In 1999, Nawaz Sharif ordered commencement of work on this project but the work could not be initiated due to the 1999 coup. The whole point of narrating the sequence of discoveries is that we have not moved from simply announcing a find to actually shaping it into meaningful productive use. The PM is requested to revive Nok Kundi iron ore and Kalabagh Steel Mills projects in view of the country’s ever-increasing steel requirements.
M Akram Niazi
Rawalpindi