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Scrap From Garbage to Gold!Article Summary: Scrap is primarily defined as any good which has gone past its designated life; has been damaged beyond significant repair or has been depleted by a following invention, throwing into question the usability, durability, efficiency and effectiveness of that product. It is common to note that most managers dismiss the relevant productivity of a product when it has crossed the four stages of a product i.e. invention, introduction, stability and decline. The last option; arguably the most under-rated of the lot, is that end-users are left with the 'scrap' phase.
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They say that one man's garbage is another man's livelihood. So factual would this statement become in the 21st century when huge industrial units, employing thousands of laborers would completely resuscitate on garbage. Yes, literally garbage! Technology waits for no one. This phrase essentially makes one inventor the enemy of the other. Newer technologies are continuously depleting older versions in the same product category. When the good is no longer good enough, it is scrapped. The world that we live in today has defined resources, limited energy generation and a time bound existence. Resources that we had a thousand years ago are no longer there. Increasing consumer patterns and energy guzzling inventions are leading to one question; how will the coming generations survive with depleting resources? The answer to this is recycling, for which the goods of yesteryears become the scrap of today.
Scrap is primarily defined as any good which has gone past its designated life; has been damaged beyond significant repair or has been depleted by a following invention, throwing into question the usability, durability, efficiency and effectiveness of that product. It is common to note that most managers dismiss the relevant productivity of a product when it has crossed the four stages of a product i.e. invention, introduction, stability and decline. The last option; arguably the most under-rated of the lot, is that end-users are left with the 'scrap' phase. The global scrap industry base their business on a key term known as [url=http://www.1855sacramento.it/woolrich.php]woolrich outlet[/url] recycling. Recycling can vary in nature, depending on the kind of product or industry that one is associating it with. Common recycling processes are used in the packaging of fast moving consumer goods, paper manufacturing, glass and bottle industry, plastics and plasters and so on. Export and import of scrap becomes a highly profitable business not only helping the environment but also pulling away from the strain on natural resources on planet Earth.
The scrap industry in Pakistan is a multi-layered phenomenon, as we are not only unique in legislative issues but immersed in diverse production capacity too. Millions of rupees worth of twisted metal is imported into Pakistan on a yearly basis, becoming the source of life and death, quite literally, for thousands of industrialists and laborers across the land of the pure. Steel and its resultant products fall in [url=http://www.tesangay.com/barbour.php]barbour online shop[/url] both essentials as well as luxury items. Be it the poor or the rich, metal counts a lot in everyday life. Scrap in Pakistan, like any other developing country has an abundance of purposes. It is used in manufacturing kitchenware, utensils, stainless steel, non-stick cooking ware and surgical equipments for both local and international markets, amongst others. Internationally, Pakistani scrap is regarded in high esteem with our market penetration moving across the globe. From the Middle East, Africa, USA, Europe, to China and the Far East, scrap from Pakistan is being used.
Understanding Pakistani industries is a complex task. Each city in Pakistan has developed its niche expertise in certain goods and services. From Faisalabad's textile empire, Sialkot's sports goods to Darra Adam Khel's weapons manufacturing; each city has its distinct flavor. Similarly, industry gurus pay significant attention to the city of Gujranwala, as it constitutes 90% of the steel and scrap industry that Pakistan holds. It is interesting to note the primary difference most people fail to understand is the distinction between [url=http://www.bjrbjy.com/news/html/?28038.html]peuterey outlet How To Create Healthy Relationships - written by Francis K Githinji[/url] Pakistan's steel and the associated scrap industry. Although both are somewhat dependant on each other's performance, the scrap industry's ability to perform single handedly needs no explanation. Primarily, there are two business models in Pakistan's scrap industry. The first model depends on the import and export of scrap with little value addition. This involves the assortment of non-ferrous metals, melting them and [url=http://www.piktor.fr/hollister/]hollister[/url] making aluminum blocks known as ingots. These are then [url=http://www.ennenne.it]moncler outlet[/url] exported as non-value added goods across the globe for steel manufacturing. While in the second model, imports are melted, shaped and molded to produce end user goods such as stainless steel pans, cooking ware, utensils, surgical equipment etc. for international and local consumption. But despite successes in the [url=http://www.sandvikfw.net/shopuk.php]hollister sale[/url] past, problems surround the city of Gujranwala, badly hampering industrial performance. Basic infrastructure woes continue to obstruct the productivity of the industry across the city. Lack of proper training for laborers, poor sanitation and health facilities, a degrading environment, lack of schools and a dilapidated road network are some of the major hurdles in Gujranwala's progress as an international investment zone. In the past decade, very few new industrial units have established themselves. On the contrary, more than 300 small scale units have closed down. This has put an additional burden on the bigger shareholders in the scrap industry of Gujranwala. Despite their continuous battle against all odds, little positive results have been achieved in the areas of steel and product research, management and distribution and most importantly environmental issues and labor laws.
The London [url=http://cgi.www5f.biglobe.ne.jp/~mujaki/tagbbs/yybbs.cgi]hollister online shop Memory [/url] Metal Exchange is another key player in the world of scrap. It works as the playmaker for scrap prices in non-ferrous and ferrous metals across the world. When scrap is delayed due to a thousand different reasons in a country like Pakistan, the prices change rapidly causing price fluctuations and losses worth millions to local importers. Pakistan's scrap industry has a major share in non-ferrous scrap imports and exports. This includes two prominent species -- aluminum and copper. Pakistan has a number of different options for collecting scrap. Options include scrap coming in from Afghanistan, which is commonly known as bomb scrap. Scrap also flows in from India and Iran which includes cars, wires, and industrial machinery. The last option is importing scrap from countries further than the ones mentioned above -- this option is usually picked by manufacturers of steel goods in Pakistan with a purpose to produce end-user goods. While zooming in to the issue of Gujranwala as a scrap power hub of Pakistan, various stakeholders get intertwined in transgressing each other's power and control. Despite the fact that Gujranwala houses some of the biggest exporters in the scrap business, Pakistan's share is on a roller coaster decline in the world scrap market. The imposition of a 25% duty by the FBR on scrap related exports has thrown a spanner in the works. The fact of the matter is that Pakistan is the only country in the world which has imposed a duty on the exports of scrap-related items. Scrap and its semi-finished products such as aluminum ingots and bars are considered to be non-value added commodities for which little or no manufacturing process takes place. Sonex Chairman, Ikhlaq Butt has strongly criticized the move to impose higher duty on such exports. He goes on to say that when no value addition takes place, how can the government impose such a hefty duty? Scrap exporters claim that this duty has been imposed on them in the month of March 2010 -- only for a brief period of 3 months till the Budget for 2010/11 comes out. According to scrap dealers, lobbyists' in the corridors of power have paid a hefty amount in bribes to the relevant authorities to impose this duty. Pakistan's share in the world scrap industry prior to this duty sat at around 8%. The post-duty period shows that our share has gone down to 1-2%, causing losses worth billions of dollars to the Pakistani economy.
But there are some special people who are profiteering from this scenario. According to scrap businessmen in Gujranwala, this particular steel lobby is working as price makers. And here's how it is working in tandem with local authorities. Semi-finished scrap exporters along with raw scrap dealers have failed to export their collection due to this hefty export duty. This has in turn reduced the local price of scrap to newer lows. Once this happens, the steel manufacturers buy scrap at these reduced costs', producing cheap kitchenware, utensils and surgical goods while keeping their sale prices at the same profitable level. Their profits margins are extended and all is well for them. Due to this, the scrap industry is dying out.
Another pinching issue for scrap importers is the usage of the term 'serviceable' at the ports in Karachi. To be clear, there are only two kinds of products; 'prime' products which are brand new products. At the other end of the spectrum are goods known as scrap. Pakistan again becomes the only country in the world which uses the term 'serviceable' goods. These goods are defined as those imported items that can be reused or repaired to be used as prime goods. Director of Shakeel Traders, Mustafa Shakeel claims that customs officials pound our [url=http://www.paolofranco.it/scarpe-hogan/]scarpe hogan[/url] scrap containers if any 'serviceable' product is found on board. Current procedures and bureaucratic hurdles cause huge delays at Karachi, exponentially increasing costs beyond normal conditions. Since the shippers only allow 5 charge-free days at the port and the port 'facilitates' for a meager 7 days on the dock, the delays cause a lot of additional costs' to the importers. Upon the completion of the stipulated free of cost time, the port authorities start charging for a 20-footer container at a rate of Rs. 5000 per day. According to importers, a minimum of 11 days are eaten up by customs officials per container cleared leading to immense strain on the scrap dealers in the country.
Terming scrap components as 'serviceable products' isn't difficult for customs officials as [url=http://www.mxitcms.com/abercrombie/]abercrombie milano[/url] well. Slightly damaged goods, which can be repaired or re-used, fall under the category of scrap, if seen from the EU's perspective. But in the customs' tunnel-view outlook, these serviceable goods can be repaired and reused in Pakistan. Thus, the hypothesis being followed over [url=http://www.renaissancedestoiles.fr]louboutin pas cher[/url] here is that importers in Pakistan, under the garb of scrap, import serviceable goods by paying meager duties. So the problem is how do we define scrap? Elementary as it may sound, this is posing as one of the most difficult problems for our business leaders to solve. Once serviceable goods are found, the containers are de-stuffed, the serviceable goods are then fined 100% on their value, plus a duty worth the original price has to be paid by the exporter. Muzaffar H. Khan, Managing Partner, Euro Metal International explains, "Our ports deal with us as smugglers. When they find coils or engines worth repair, they impose heavy fines. When they de-stuff our containers, our ports do not have the facility to re-pack them." Ata Fareed Chaudry, another scrap importer and exporter based in Gujranwala claims that once the compressed scrap containers are opened, it requires more than 3 cargo trucks/per 20 footer containers to transport it to Gujranwala. It seems as if the authorities have found every possible procedure in increasing our costs' in the most creative ways possible. Mr. Chaudry goes on to say that,"we are even ready to break up these serviceable goods so that we cannot reuse them. But the port authorities are not ready to pay heed to our [url=http://www.reedlawky.com/hollisterde.php]hollister deutschland[/url] concerns." Just across the Arabian Sea, the Dubai port authorities have given enough facilitation for which they are famous for. Only a 7.5% flat rate duty has been imposed on any imports into the country.
But as they say, not all claims have to be believed under the purview of the law of the land. Although the problems have some commonalities, turning our eye to Lahore tells us a slightly different tale. The Misri Shah Scrap market in Lahore, which locals say is Pakistan's largest scrap market, reflects much of life for millions of Pakistanis. Trucks and donkey carts pack Misri Shah's dirt alleys, bringing in engines, pipes, train parts, ship anchors and other varieties of industrial metal. Men with hammers, blowtorches, grinders and presses take to the mounds of junk, sorting it into metal to be melted down or otherwise recycled into Pakistan's economy. Some of [url=http://www.piktor.fr/abercrombie-france/]abercrombie france[/url] Misri Shah's metal comes from Afghanistan's war zone. Battlefield steel is eagerly sought, notably Russian tanks and armored vehicles that litter Afghanistan even 21 years after the Soviet army ended its occupation there. Scrap yard workers say war machinery is built of high-grade steel hard enough to be profitably recycled into rock-crushing equipment and tools.
Pakistan tries to control the import of war debris by permitting scrap imports only via Taftan, a customs post on the Iranian border, claimed one dealer at Misri Shah. Merchants often hide cheaply bought "bomb scrap" in shipments to increase weight and boost profits, he said. "The government must properly check these trucks (at the border) and prevent bombs from coming to Lahore," he said. Still, ordnance trickles into Misri Shah, scrap yard owners and workers said. "People just pay bribes and bring in what they want," said another scrap dealer, who runs one of the neighborhood's hundreds of small scrap yards. "We are getting [url=http://www.jimin-togane.jp/cgi-bin/aska/aska.cgi?ref=hikayee.net]www.1855sacramento.it/woolric[/url] regular supplies of these weapon pieces, cut into sheet in Afghanistan," said Riaz Ahmed, one of the major scrap dealers at the heir market. Russian-made pieces are his specialty. Weapons captured first by the Afghan mujahedeen and later by the Taliban from their Soviet and Northern Alliance enemies are the most popular items at the market because of the quality of their steel.
Regular scrap weapon supplies [url=http://www.chu-forex.fr/airjordan.php]jordan pas cher[/url] started pouring into Pakistan in 1982 when the war between the mujahedeen and Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers was at its peak. Now it is also fuelled by a nationwide disarmament drive over the border in Afghanistan, with scores of warehouses set up on the Afghan side of the frontier. "The trade is absolutely legal, as trucks that carry weapon scrap have to pay duties [url=http://www.batfriendtrust.it]hogan outlet[/url] and tariffs when they cross over into Pakistan," says Harris Khan, a major scrap supplier to the warehouses. Khan buys the scrap from Afghan traders at the border and transports it hundreds of miles to Lahore. Apart from Afghanistan itself, the bordering former Soviet republics of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan are also major sources of the trade. "Not only tanks and artillery pieces, our stocks include empty mortar shells, and used up tank ammunition," Harris said.
We move on to Karachi, without which an industry overview remains incomplete. The ship-breaking yard in Gaddani poses handsomely as one [url=http://www.lotogame.fr/hollisterfrance.php]hollister france[/url] big source of scrap metal for Pakistan's steel industry. The area of Gaddani, 50 kilometers away from Karachi is a scrap gold-mine. Since 1947, old ocean-vessels have been anchored in this area to be ripped apart for scrap collection and generation for the entire country. In the 1980's, Gaddani created history. It employed close to 30, 000 employers all collected at one place with a purpose to break; becoming the biggest ship breaking yard in the world. The country's depleting scrap industry can be gauged by the fact that at present, Gaddani only houses 6000 workers completely outdone by bigger and better ship-breaking ports in India and Bangladesh.
The common problem one glaringly sees in all three (Gujranwala, Karachi, Lahore) cities is the availability of energy. Most scrap businesses run on electricity for running the machines and gas for furnaces that [url=http://www.technick.fr]hollister[/url] melt Scrap items include electrical wires, coils, automobile engines, heavy machinery, furnaces from which a majority of copper and aluminum (non-ferrous metals) are extracted. Laborers work diligently to remove plastic coatings and layers. To reduce costs, most of these processes are done manually. When this is done, the aluminum and copper are melted in blast furnaces and the end products; steel ingots and bars are manufactured. These are then distributed and exported to world markets. But to complete the process, electricity and [url=http://www.renaissancedestoiles.fr]louboutin[/url] gas are essential raw materials. UTrade's visit to Gujranwala exposed the irregularities of GESCO and WAPDA, as load shedding prolonged to 18 hours per day to industrial units across the city. Similarly, Misri Shah in Lahore and Gaddani in Karachi witness the same troubles on a daily basis. An industry mired in so many problems ranging from bureaucratic hurdles, economic mismanagement and a power crisis it certainly becomes a daunting challenge for a flawed management in Islamabad.
Untangling this brewing crisis is a prolonged debate but it has to start from somewhere. Picking up from the issue of jacked up duties to export scrap; this contentious issue is of higher or soaring duties, not the duty itself. There is a general consensus amongst the who's who of Gujranwala's scrap market that this will be a temporary phase. Once the budget roles out into the public in July, the duties will be taken back. For the next three months, the price makers in the steel manufacturing industry are cashing in to this plastic deformation to mint money from the local markets. Despite the reduction in scrap prices of today, steel goods continue to remain at the same price levels. Neither the scrap industry, nor the people of Pakistan are benefitting from this anomaly.
Secondly, load shedding is eating up Pakistan in a whirlwind manner. Despite assurances being thrown at the entire nation to curb load shedding at specific dates, the Ministry of Water and Power has failed. Renting power stations is a temporary solution which the country's decision makers are willing to spend millions of dollars. What this country needs is long-term projects which can survive for a period of 20 to 30 years. Temporary solutions today will pose permanent problems in the future. Line losses and electricity theft pose as the second part of this problem. Neither is the populous willing to change their lifestyles, nor is the government machinery willing to budge an inch. Dilapidated cables and poor maintenance have lead to 40% line losses which is undoubtedly sad for a country like Pakistan where resources are few and far. Sonex Chairman Ikhlaq Butt, a major shareholder in Gujranwala's steel and scrap industry says, "The government has to give provincial autonomy in terms of the distribution of electricity. While the government controls its production, the provinces control its effective distribution. Whether the line losses continue to rage on, it's the provincial government which will foot the bill for the provinces consumption. It will be the duty of the provincial government to ensure that no theft occurs, because they will pay to the federal government in the end. No excuses, no nothing." So are we ready to take the next big step. No is the simple reply for reasons unknown to the common Pakistani.
Thirdly, despite the presence of a 51,000 micron scanner, including 4 high tech cameras, customs officials in the garb of 'strict surveillance' continue to physically inspect containers loaded with scrap. The legislative frame work has to be improved where the Federal Board of Revenue has to play a moderator's role between the scrap importers and steel manufacturers. With a majority of our industrialists focusing their attention on generators, gas, electricity, raw materials and customs, is it really likely that Pakistan would be able to compete with countries such as China and India? It's high time that the people in question untangle these unanswered mysteries and create an atmosphere of collective effort and intent for improvements in all segments of the steel and scrap industry.

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