Pakistan mills have announced an increase in cold rolling capacities to cater to rising domestic demand.
A north Pakistan-based steelmaker, Hadeed Pakistan, commenced production at its new 6-high cold rolling mill with an annual capacity of 300,000mt.
The plant is located at Sheikupura Ferozwala in Punjab Province. It is designed to produce cold rolled steel of 0.25-3mm finished-product thickness, and a width of 914/1000/1219 in the SPCC, SPCD and SPCE grades.
Pakistan’s Punjab region is dominated majorly by rerollers and induction furnaces.
Pakistan’s total cold rolling capacity is likely to increase to 1.3mn mt per annum and domestic demand gauged at 700,000mt, according to local metal associations.
Finished steel consumers in the northern region are likely to benefit with the move to boost production as it will eliminate the transport cost incurred during the transportation of finished steel products, according to the steel makers.
Heavy Mechanical Complex plans a steel mill
Also, Pakistan’s leading engineering enterprise, Heavy Mechanical Complex (HMC), plans to set up a re-rolling mill with an annual capacity of 90,000mt. The mill will convert steel billets into deformed bars of construction grade.
HMC also plans to install an induction furnace to modernise its exiting continuous casting plant (CCP) line.
It will set up a bar rolling mill to convert billets of CCP into flat rolled products.