Al-Tuwairqi Holding, of Saudi Arabia, and Posco Ltd of S Korea -- the world’s third largest steelmaker -- have placed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Government of Pakistan for backward and forward integration of Tuwairqi Steel Mills Ltd. (TSML).
This is Pakistan’s first private sector integrated steel manufacturing complex, located at Bin Qasim, in Karachi, Sindh Province. The MoUs cover second phase and third phase upstream and downstream developments.
The second phase calls for further value addition through a melt shop, producing world standard steel grades. The third phase calls for up-stream integration exploring for local iron ore in Balochistan Province, its extraction, beneficiation and pelletisation.
These plans call for investing about $900M for the objectives.
Under the MoU, Pakistan will facilitate TSML in developing mines and iron ore for TSML’s DRI plants which started up recently with a capacity of 1.28Mt/y.
This first phase was completed at an overall investment of $350M.
Source: Daily ‘The Express Tribune’, Karachi; 23 Jan 2013