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IN - Public-sector units suffer losses despite production increase

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Public sector units running under the Ministry of Industries and Production have shown an overall increase in the production index but they have incurred losses and majority of the plants have worked under capacity, the ministry’s report for July-Oct performance shows. The report indicates that during July-Oct 2008, Pakistan Steel, National Fertiliser Corporation and State Engineering Corporation recorded an aggregate loss of Rs430 million as compared to profit of Rs1,044 million in the corresponding period of last year.

Separately, Pakistan Steel suffered a loss of Rs496 million during July-Oct 2008 compared to profit of Rs997 million in the last financial year while NFC unit Hazara Phosphate made a profit of Rs81 million compared to Rs40 million last year. State Engineering Company’s units reported an aggregate profit of Rs12 million during July-Oct 2008 compared to Rs42 million last year. The profit decline was mainly due to Heavy Engineering Complex loss of Rs23 million during the period under review compared to a profit of Rs46 million the previous year as well as the loss incurred by Sindh Engineering (Pvt) Limited. Overall production index of all corporations/units showed an increase of 93.52 per cent due to a rise in production of Heavy Mechanical Complex and Pakistan Steel, the report says. Aggregate production of engineering products of SEC units fell by Rs10.72 million and production of Dong Feng vehicles declined by 25 units. Raw steel production in Pakistan Steel dropped by 34,537 tons and the same trend was noticed in almost other products excluding coke, cold-rolled coils and galvanised coils. Fertiliser, engineering, automobile and Pakistan Steel units worked well below capacity. Production of super phosphate with annual capacity of 162,000 tonnes slipped to 24,680 tonnes from last year’s 25,900 tonnes.

In engineering and automobile sectors, production of power transformers with annual capacity of 148 units declined to six units against last year’s 11 units. Production of steel ingots with capacity of 38,000 tonnes increased from 782 tonnes to 1,431 tonnes while output of steel casting with capacity of 6,500 tonnes slipped from 434 tonnes to 400 tonnes during the period under review. Similarly, cast iron with annual capacity of 5,000 tonnes registered a growth from 926 to 1,375 tonnes while die-casting with capacity of 684 tonnes showed a fall from 173 to 152 tonnes. Cement plant and equipment with annual capacity of 2,924 tonnes posted a decline in production from 67 to 34 tonnes while sugar plants and equipment with annual capacity of 1,930 tonnes increased production from 915 to 1,818 tonnes. Power plants reduced production from 17 to 1 tonne while chemical plants pushed up production from 210 to 1,892 tonnes. Production of Dong Feng vehicles with annual capacity of 3,000 units decreased from 35 to 10 units. All products of Pakistan Steel remained under-utilised against installed capacity while some products registered a growth and some declined. Production of raw steel with annual capacity of 1,100,000 tonnes fell from 309,630 to 275,093 tonnes, hot metal/pig iron with capacity of 1,230,000 tons fell from 353,087 to 309,611 tonnes, rolled billets with capacity of 260,000 tonnes decreased from 67,734 to 57,174 tonnes and HR coils with capacity of 792,000 tonnes decreased from 183,192 to 176,217 tonnes.

However, production of coke with annual capacity of 970,000 tonnes increased from 96,858 to 123,549 tonnes, CR coils with capacity of 210,000 tonnes rose from 44,230 to 49,270 tonnes and galvanised coils with capacity of 100,000 tonnes rose from 9,215 to 10,416 tonnes. 

 

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