Pakistan

Pakistan: Steel Industry Overview

PAKISTAN STEEL HOT AND COLD ROLLED STEEL PLANT, PAKISTAN

Located some 40 kilometers to the east of Karachi, Pakistan Steel and its related facilities are spread over an area of 18,600 acres, or about 29 square miles. The construction of the complex involved the use of 1.29 cubic meters of concrete, 330,000 tonnes of machinery, steel structure and electrical equipment, and the employment of over 40,000 workers at the peak of construction.

In January 1971, the Governments of Pakistan and the USSR signed an agreement, the latter undertaking to provide technological and financial assistance for the construction of a coastal based integrated steel complex. The total capital cost of the project is estimated at about Rs. 24.7 billion.

PLANT CONSTRUCTION

The construction work on the main plant was started in 1976. Among the main complexes and units of the project, the first coke oven battery was commissioned in April 1981, the first blast furnace in August 1981, the billet mill in October 1982, and the two converters, one bloom caster and two slab casters of the steel making plant between December 1982 and November 1983. The hot strip mill was commissioned in December 1983, the second blast furnace in August 1984, the cold rolling mill in December 1984, the second coke oven battery in May 1985 and the expansion project billet caster in November 1989.

STEEL CONVERTERS

The Steel Making Plant Complex has two Linz. Donawitz converters. Each converter has a capacity of 130 tonnes of steel for which there is one bloom caster and two slab casters.

Bloom 260 x 260 mm sizes are used for making billets which are utilized for manufacturing various steel products. The slabs of 150-200 mm thickness and 700-1500 mm width sizes produced at the Steel Making Plant are fed to the hot strip mill where they are rolled into stripes, sheets and coils. The first converter was commissioned on 18th December 1982, the bloom caster on 22nd December 1982, the second converter on 17th February 1983, the first slab caster on 10th August 1983 and the second slab caster on 1st November 1983.

1700 HOT STRIP MILL

The 1700 hot strip mill operates on slabs produced at the steel making plant. It produces hot rolled sheets, coils and strips suitable for ship building and the manufacture of pipes of small, medium and large diameter, bodies of cars, buses and other vehicles, railway wagons, transformers, boilers, big tanks, machinery and formed sections. The hot rolled sheets are also utilized for the production of cold rolled sheets. It has a designed capacity of 445,000 tonnes.

COLD ROLLING MILL

The cold rolling mill is a cold reversible mill with 200,000 tonnes capacity, from which 10,000 tonnes are turned into cold formed sections. The cold rolling mill operates on hot rolled sheets and coils produced at the hot strip mill. Cold rolled sheets are used for the production of enameled wares, bicycles, steel fabrication, steel containers, drums, barrels, jerry-cans, vehicle and bus bodies, steel furniture, machinery parts, products and appliances, oil and gas appliances etc. Cold rolled sheets are also used for the production of galvanized sheets, and black plates and tinplates.

Galvanized sheets are used for containers, trunks, boxes, packets, steel shuttering, desert coolers, construction and roofing, ducting equipment, appliances, paneling, utensils, air-conditioners, water heaters and fresh water tanks.

Cold and hot-formed sections are used for steel fabrications, furniture, vehicle and bus bodies, building construction, miscellaneous machinery and equipment/parts, steel doors and windows.

COMMISSIONED DATES

The combined slitting units and hot rolled coil conveyor section of the cold rolling mill were commissioned on 10th February 1984 while the combined shearing unit and profile bending units were put into operation on 4th and 28th April 1984, respectively. The operation of the main cold rolling mill units marked the completion of the first phase of a 1.1 million tonnes production of steel products.

The main products and specifications from the plant are as follows:

Hot rolled sheets have coils of thickness 1.6-10mm and width 630-1500 mm, with a weight of 14.5 tonnes. Cold rolled sheets have thickness of 0.30-2.5 mm, width 600-1500mm and length 1-4 meters. The weight of the coils is between 14.5 tonnes and 90 tonnes. Galvanized sheets and coils have thickness 0.35-1.5 mm with width 700-1500 mm. The weight of the coils will vary between 6.5 tonnes and 100 tonnes.

The plant also produces formed angle sections with the following dimensions: between 80x80 mm and 150x150mm. The lengths available are up to 12 meters.

Pakistan Metallic & Iron Ore Sector - 2015
Pakistan Industrial Minerals Sector - 2015
Pakistan Coal Sector - 2015
Pakistan Mining & Mineral Sector - Reserves & Extraction
1989 - Pakistan Steel Hot and Cold Rolled Steel Plant