Giving the background, sources said, Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of Cabinet on November 7, 2018 directed the Ministry to put up a plan for operationalization of PSM within 60 days, which prompted the Advisor to the Prime Minister on Commerce, Industries & Production, Textile and Investment to constitute the following Expert Group to propose various options for revival of the PSM: (i) Business Experts Group Hubco; Khalid Mansoor, Syed Mahmood All, Ruhail Mahmood, Saleem Ullah Memon, Kamran Kamal, Zulfiqar Siddiqui; (ii) Technical Experts, Wasif Mahmood-ISL, Dr Munir - Ayesha Steel, Akhtar Ali - Consultant Ex-GM Operations PSM; and (iii) steel business - Towfiq Chinoy - ISL Zaigham Rizvi - Twarqi and Akhtar Ali-Consultant Ex Gm Operation.
The Group is working on pro bono basis and to ensure confidentiality of the data and information shared. One meeting of the PSM Staff and Officers of the Ministry was held with some members of the Group on November 16, 2018 at Hubco head office as per direction of Advisor to the Prime Minster on Industries and Production. On November 29, 2018, some members of the Group also visited the PSM on the directions of the Advisor. Recently, a communication from MoI&P was received in PSM, wherein PSM management has been asked to convene a meeting of the PSM Board of Directors to seek endorsement of the decision/initiatives regarding consultation as well as data sharing with Hubco Group.
The meeting of the Board has not yet been held as some of the Board members including those from the public sector are unwilling to be part of current rehabilitation plan.
The Chinese company, in its Letter of Intent (LoI), has stated that it is a super large stated-owned enterprise, its shares are held by China Metallurgical Group Corporation, one of 500 top companies of the world.
CFMCC is mainly engaged in engineering general contracting, steel deep processing and development of real estate. It is authorized to directly engage in foreign trade and has the first-class qualification for general contracting of construction of metallurgical projects, house building projects, municipal public works and mechanical and electrical installation works, and for specialized contracting of construction of furnace and kiln projects, steel structure work, mechanical and electrical equipment installation works for metallurgical projects, high-rise building projects and etc.
The company claims that over the past 50 years since 1954, it has undertaken various projects in all periods of WISCO. Meanwhile, it is Central China-centered, has gradually expanded its business across the country and a large number of systematic projects were completed one after another for the iron and steel enterprises such as Tianjin Seamless Tubing Mill, Handan Iron and Steel Co., Jiangsu Shagang Group, Jigang Group Co., Ltd. and etc. and the total steel production capacity of the iron and steel projects completed by CFMCC accounts for one tenth in China.
On the basis of metallurgical projects, CFMCC is actively exploiting the market of non-metallurgical projects that has undertaken lots of projects in the fields of mechanical, electronics, power, petroleum chemical, light and textile, communications and transport, building materials, municipal works high rise buildings etc. for steel deep processing. CFMCC owns a 0.2 MTPA modern processing base of steel structure, which is advanced in design and manufacture of blast furnace shell and pressure vessel (spheric tank and LPG tank and etc.) in China, with an advantage of possessing core technologies of compression moulding and automatic welding of thick plate. For development of real estate, CFMCC has brilliant capabilities in design and its development. CFMCC has been striving to exploit the overseas construction market as well.
CFMCC left its trace in a dozen countries in Asia, Europe and Africa, set up branches in India, Libya, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia and has export business and projects under construction in India, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Turkey, Pakistan, Yemen, Indonesia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and etc.
"We understand that PSM is facing some operational and financial issues. With the recent developments of CPEC, steel products are essential requirements for development of Pakistan. We are very much interested to work with Pakistan for the development and rehabilitation of Pakistan Steel Mills," the company said in its LoI.
