The News, citing Mr Ali Ahmad vice chairman of Pakistan Steel Re Rolling Mills Association, reported that the daily consumption of steel in Pakistan has fallen up to 40% from 5,000 tonnes a day to only 2,000 tonnes only as a result of the slump in the building and construction industry.
Mr Ali said that steel consumption, which is considered as an indicator to measure the wealth of a country is particularly low in Pakistan.
He said “The per capita consumption of steel in Pakistan is 37 kilograms which is very low in comparison with international standards.”
He said that the ship breaking industry of Gadani is also facing a fall in activities resulting in sharp decline of demand and use of steel.
The Association of Builders and Developers Chairman Engineer Farooq-uz-Zaman Khan emphasised that if the re rolling mills are to run at their full capacity, it will add considerable amount to the national ex-chequer because cement and steel are the basic raw material for the construction industry. He said “These important sectors could only develop if the problems faced by construction industry are resolved,” said he. Taking into consideration the small share of construction sector in our GDP it’s only 2.4% in Pakistan.”
Talking about the prevailing scenario of the industry, Mr Saleem Kassim Patel, Chairman of the Sindh & Balochistan Region ABAD, said that the country is facing a shortage of 8 million housing units, which is growing annually. He said that the loan disbursement from Housing Project Zone of HBFC is very negligible and the commercial banks also are not providing long-term finance for construction of homes.
The problems of infrastructure are also hampering the growth of the construction sector. In Pakistan the GDP to housing finance ratio is less than 1%, which is insignificant as compared to other countries of South Asia and there is an urgent need that this ratio is brought up to 5%.
He highlighted that even if every year 500,000 homes are constructed it will result in direct and indirect employments for millions of Pakistani labour.
This is because, he told that despite the recession, the share of construction sector employment wise is more than 6 per cent, which after agricultural sector is the highest. Saleem Kassim Patel added that if the government provides incentives and facilities to the housing sector, all allied industries could benefit.