Struggling steel industry faces worse times due to COVID-19

ZUBAIR QURESHI
Pakistan Association of Large Steel Producers (PALSP) has appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan to take its input before announcing a bailout package for the industry in the wake of coronavirus outbreak. In an open letter the PALSP Secretary General Syed Wajid I Bukhari drew the prime minister’s attention to the fact that steel industry was in deep crisis and was struggling to survive particularly in the wake of coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Bukhari suggested a number of measures to the prime minister to “avert a total meltdown of the local steel industry.” First and the foremost step in this regard will be a ‘Stimulus Package’ for revival of construction industry, says he in the letter. “As a key stakeholder and with 60pc share of the local steel market, the PALSP appeals to the government to take the association on board in the consultative process of the construction industry related package, the government is reportedly considering. Any such package “must be approved after taking into confidence our association as well as other stakeholders,” the letter goes on to maintain. In the letter it has also been suggested that interest rate must be cut to further 5pc immediately as an extra measure. Another point the letter has raised is “All principal payments for long-term and shortterm loans be deferred for next three years and no mark-up should be charged till the industrial sector is kept closed due to COVID19. The letter also calls upon the prime minister to direct the commercial banks to announce special and extra finances to its regular industrial customers to be made available on soft markup terms to meet their contingency plans. The PALSP letter has also called for deference of power and gas bills for six months till the end of the COVID-19 threat. Last but not the least, all port charges, demurrage, container detention charges by shipping lines should be waived off till industrial sector again comes to production stage, says the letter.