The decision was taken by National Standards Committee for Civil Engineering of Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) at its meeting in Islamabad on July 5.
According to details available here on Tuesday, this was considered necessary as the TOR manufactured under Pakistan Standard (PS) 1612-1992 seemed vulnerable to seismic changes. It was further decided to endorse British Standard (BS)-4449-based Pakistan Standard as PS:1612-2007 to supersede the existing PS:1612-1992 as it lacks in compatibility requirements meant for territorial seismic zones of Pakistan.
The manufacturers have been given a three-year period for compliance in line with the Cabinet decision of October 2005. This would also imply that manufacture, keeping in stock, and sale shall only be undertaken after having valid Certification Mark (CM) licences.
The reason for this consideration, endorsed by the Cabinet, surfaced after the disaster caused by the earthquakes in recent past, which brought down buildings in Islamabad.
TOR is under compulsory certification mark by PSQCA but due to political pressures and influences, re-rolling mills are staying away from obtaining PSQCA mark against standardisation. The sampling by PSQCA shows that random collections do not qualify the TOR manufactured by re-rolling mills even up to the standard which is again outdated and superseded in favour of manufacturing TMT and micro-alloyed steels. For TOR, compulsory licensing is obligatory, but the re-rolling mills avoid compliance, which has to be overseen by PSQCA in terms of its constitutional obligations and the mandate given through legislation.
Disagreeing with government's stance that TMT steel is not available in Pakistan, Zarak K Khattak, of F F Steel, of Peshawar, said that TMT took its advent in Pakistan from April 2007. F F-Steel is currently the second largest steel re-rolling mill in the country with a rated capacity of 330 tons per day. Magna Steel, in Karachi, followed it. Currently, Mughul Steel is also trying to optimise its TMT process and will soon come into production.
Nauman Wazir, CEO, F FSteel, said: "After the October 8 earthquake in 2005, we in the construction industry should not be taking things lightly. Everything should be done on merit. If TMT steel is better than the steel currently available in Pakistan, I fail to understand why the government is not helping in its promotion."
He said that in February 2007, F F Steel started production of Pakistan's first Thermo-Mechanically Treated (TMT) steel bars (earthquake-resistant). TMT steel bars, with their high strength along with higher elongation, are specifically meant for construction in earthquake-prone areas - seismic zones 2, 3 and 4. Internationally, the use of TMT steel in earthquake-prone areas is mandatory, and is specified in their building codes (minimum elongation 18 percent).
TMT steel bars are produced using billets of special composition (low carbon content) from Pakistan Steel Mills. The final product is quenched immediately after it leaves the rolling mill using high-pressure water and air.
According to PSQCA, cold twisted deformed (CTD), commonly known as cold twisted (TOR) steel bars, do not meet the required quality standards and are unsafe for use in the construction industry. These steel bars have been banned internationally in seismic areas. However, despite their vulnerability to earthquakes and natural disasters, they are still being massively used around the country.
According to experts, steel bars can be made by three different technologies: cold twisting, micro-alloying, and thermo-mechanical treatment (TMT, also known as quenching and tempering). TOR steel has a very low production cost, as well as very low elongation, which is not at all suitable for seismic areas. Micro-alloying and TMT steel have much more elongation compared to TOR steel. TMT steel, which is the state-of-the-art technology world-wide, and has further advantages of better weldability, higher thermal stability and economy of use.
Since the government has not banned TOR steel yet, contractors all over the country are using TOR steel because of the low cost. Further, the government has not given any incentives to the TMT steel mills to blossom in the country. Phasing out TOR steel by banning it is not the only step which should be taken. The government should give clear incentives to these new steel mills, which are endeavouring to create the required amount of awareness about better steel within the country. The government, because of heavy lobbying of TOR steel owners in the Steel Re-rolling Association, refuses to classify TMT steel as the preferred type of steel, wherever available, experts say.