Production of cars, jeeps increased over 22 pc

on 10/07/2018

The production of cars and jeeps increased by 22.12 percent during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year (2017-18) compared to the corresponding period of last year.

As many as 176,007 cars and jeeps were manufactured during July-March (2017-18) against the production of 144,129 units during July-March (2016-17), according to the data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). The production of light commercial vehicles (LCVs) also increased by 21.29 percent by going up from output of 18,637 units last year to 22,605 units during the ongoing year while the production of motorcycles surged by 14.26 percent as its manufacturing increased from 1,847,903 units last year to 2,111,488 units during the current fiscal year. According to the data, the production of trucks also increased from 5,489 units last year to 6,907 units during the current year, showing growth of 25.83 percent while the production of tractors surged by 38.52 percent by expanding from output of 37,938 units to 52,551 units.

However, the production of buses witnessed decreased of 37.85 percent by falling from output of 893 units to 555 units, the data revealed.

Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the production of jeeps and cars increased by 14.22 percent as their output went up from 18,626 units during March 2017 to 21,275 units in March 2018.

Likewise, the production of LCVs increased by 34.23 percent, from 2,010 units to 2,698 units while the production of motorcycles went up by 17.81 percent, from 213,693 units to 251,749 units.

The production of tractors also witnessed increase of 8.37 percent by going up from 6,436 units to 6,975 units while the production of trucks increased by 37.44 percent, from 601 units to 826 units.

However, the production buses witnessed decrease of 24.44 percent as their production decreased from 90 units to 68 units.

It is pertinent to mention here that over all Large Scale Manufacturing Industries (LSMI) growth witnessed an impressive growth of 5.89 percent during July-March 2017-18 against the same period of last year.

The country’s LSMI Quantum Index Numbers (QIM) was recorded at 149.26 points during July-March (2017-18) against 140.97 points during July-March (2016-17).

The highest growth of 3.33 percent was witnessed in the indices monitored by Ministry of Industries, followed by 1.84 percent growth in the products monitored by Provincial Bureaus of Statistics (PBOS) and 0.72growth in the indices of Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC) `

A dream comes true, The first layer of indigenous coal unearthed

on 10/07/2018

Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company SECMC made history on June 10 after unearthing the very first layer of indigenous coal from its open-pit coal mine in Thar Coal Block – II in Tharparkar district at a depth of 140 meters (460 feet) below the surface.

The company’s spokesman Mohsin Babbar informed that the machinery took out the first layer from an estimated 2.04 billion tons of coal resources in Thar Coal Block – II after successfully De-watering the second acquirer.

According to him, the task had been achieved 5 months ahead of the schedule.”

The successful extraction of the first coal seam not only proves that Thar’s indigenous coal is exploitable but could produce thousands of megawatts of cheap electricity for many decades,” said Shamsuddin A Shaikh, Chief Executive Officer of SECMC, who earlier witnessed the coal unearthing at the bottom of the mine pit in Thar Coal Block II.

Congratulating the nation, especially the people of Thar, He said it was a matter of great pride for the nation that country’s indigenous energy resource would play a key role in circumventing the current energy crisis.”

This is the moment for which all Pakistanis had been waiting for the past 25 years, ever since coal was first discovered in Thar” he underlined.

He thanked all the sponsors of that mega project, lenders, the federal government and especially Sindh government for providing complete support to make the dream of Thar coal a reality.

Commenting on the performance of SECMC, the CEO added that the company had completed 16 million safe man-hours while removing 90 million cubic meters of earth.According to him, by saving 5 months of the scheduled completion around $110 million against the budgeted cost had been saved.

Sharing the future plans, He told that the company planned to rapidly expand the mine in Block-II to reach its optimum capacity to produce 5,000 MW by 2,024.

That would extremely reduce the coal price making, Thar Block-II not only the cheapest block in Thar, it would also become the cheapest base load energy resource in the country with a power tariff of approximately 5 US cents per KWH.

He requested both the federal and provisional governments to put on hold the development of all other coal blocks in Thar till SECMC’s Block – II reaches its optimum capacity.

Commenting on the CSR work being done by the Company in Thar, He said that SECMC was committed to making Islamkot a developed town which attained the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2024.

Speaking on the occasion, Syed Abul Fazal Rizvi, Chief Operating Officer of SECMC said that the coal in Thar was called lignite which was ideally suited for producing electricity.

“With a cumulative thickness around 26 meters, there were enough coal reserves in Block-II to produce 5,000 MW for the next 50 years,” He said.

He said that the full-fledged coal supply will start from the third quarter of 2018 and the first electron would be generated from the EPTL power plant by December 2018.

The spokesman apprised that SECMC was a joint venture between Sindh Government and 6 private sponsors including Engro Energy, Thal Ltd, Habib Bank Ltd, Hubco, and two Chinese companies CMEC and SPIC.

He said SECMC was the largest public-private partnership in Pakistan to explore and develop Pakistan’s first open-pit coal mine with an annual output of 3.8 million tons.

The entire coal production would be supplied to Engro Powergen Thar Limited (EPTL) which was establishing two power plants of 330 MW capacity each, he added.

The power plant targeted to start power generation before the end of 2018, he told adding that both those projects were part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and were being constructed in collaboration with Chinese contractors.

کراچی شپ یارڈ میں تیار کردہ 32 ٹن پل ٹگ پاک بحریہ کے حوالے

on 03/07/2018

  ٹگ میں  نصب مضبوط فینڈر تمام جہازوں کو کھینچنے کی صلاحیت رکھتے ہیں–

 کراچی (اسٹاف رپورٹر) کراچی  شپ یارڈ میں تیار ہونے والا32 ٹن پل ٹگ پاک بحریہ کے حوالے کر دیا گیا۔ 13 ناٹ رفتار  والے ٹگ کے چاروں طرف  مضبوط فینڈر  نصب ہیں جو پاک بحریہ کے تمام جہازوں کو کھینچنے کی صلاحیت رکھتے ہیں۔ پل ٹگ پاک بحریہ کے حوالے کرنے کی تقریب کراچی ڈاکیارڈ میں واقع  شپ یارڈ  میں منعقد ہوئی ، جس کے مہمانِ خصوصی  وائس چیف آف نیول  اسٹاف وائس ایڈمرل کلیم شوکت تھے۔

مہمانِ خصوصی نے تقریب سے خطاب کرتے  ہوئے کہا کہ شپ یارڈ جہاز ساری  کی صنعت میں اہم  کردار ادا کر رہا ہے۔ شپ یارڈ کے  انجینئیر ز اور  ورکرز کی خدمات قابلِ تعریف ہیں۔پاک بحریہ کراچی شپ یارڈ کو ہمیشہ تعاون اور اور سپورٹ فراہم کرتی رہے گی۔انہوں نے کہا کہ ُکراچی  شپ یارڈ  ہمیشہ پاک بحریہ کےاعتماد پر پورا اترا ہے۔  جلد شپ  یارڈ  میں تیار ہونے والے  مذید جنگی بیڑے بھی پاک بحیریہ کا حصہ ہونگے۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ سی پیک  سے  پرائیویٹ سیکٹر کو فروزغ ملے گا۔ گورنمنٹ اور پرائیویٹ کسیکٹر کو اس موقع سے فائدہ اٹھانا چاہیے۔

تقریب میں ایم ڈی  ریئر ایڈمرل  سید حسن ناصر  شاہ  نے ٹگ پاک بحریہ کے حوالے کیا۔ تقریب سے خطاب کرتے ہوئے ایم ڈی  ریئر ایڈمرل  سید حسن ناصر  شاہ ہلالِ امتیاز نے کہا کہ پاک بحریہ کے لیے 6 جہازوں کی تعمیر کا  منصوبہ جاری ہے۔ 17 ہزار ٹن فلیٹ ٹینکر، میری ٹائم سیکورٹی  کے لیے 1500 اور 600 ٹن   کے میزائل بردار بیڑے تکمیلی مراحل میں ہیں، انہوں نے کہا کہ شپ یارڈ  نے فلپائن اور  تھائی لینڈ کے لیے 8 شوگر مل رولرز  تعمیر کیے۔ ایم ڈی  ریئر ایڈمرل نے بتایا  کہ  ٹگ  جدید  ٹگ جدید سہو لتوں سے آراستہ  ہے۔  ٹگ کو  پی این ٹی  فیض کا نام دیا  گیا  ہے۔ ٹگ 481 ٹن  وزنی 34 میٹر لمبا ہے جس کی رفتار  13 ناٹ ہے۔ ٹگ کی چاروں  طرف مضبوط  فینڈر نصب ہیں جو پاک  بحریہ کے تمام جہازوں کو کھینچنے کی  صلاحیت رکھتا ہے۔

Major power breakdowns force NTDC to apprise

on 30/06/2018

NTDC board apprised how system collapsed in May power breakdowns

Three major power breakdowns in May have forced the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) to carry out a highly technical study to propose further islanding options both in the Northern and Southern transmission systems.

The core objective behind this exercise is to boost the system protection and avoid incidents of tripping, triggering supply failures in north of the country. To this end, a consultant of international repute will be hired.

The study would have recommendations related to dividing north and southern systems in maximum seven independent clusters so as to avoid cascading effect of such breakdowns.

The decision was made in a meeting of the NTDC`s board of directors presided over by Babar Iqbal at WAPDA House on a single-point agenda to ascertain the facts regarding partial power failure as well as the way forward.The board was firm commitment to revamp and revitalize the transmission system of the country and instructed the management to fully investigate, analyze and determine the causes of the failure and for adopting mitigating measures to avoid such system collapse in the future.

NTDC management presented a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the incident, specifically the key system limitations of contingency. The board was apprised that the two 500 kilo volt transmission lines tripped due to fault at Guddu Power House switchyard triggering the third line`s breakdown as it could not sustain the load of the other two. As a result, the system was split in two regions North and South. The under frequency relays installed in the northern system isolated around 2,800 megawatts power load to stabilize the system.In the meantime, loss of additional generation in the North lead to collapse of the system and there was no further capacity available in the system to isolate an equivalent load.

 

TAPI gets a push; financial close expected this year

on 30/06/2018

Pakistan will sign gas transportation and transit fee agreements, pipeline service rules and complete Front End Engineering Design (FEED) activities, under Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI) project, during next fiscal year.

Official sources say the project activities, also signing of gas transportation agreement, pipeline service rules, transit fee agreement and completion of FEED work will be implemented during the new financial year (2018-19).

The project began making a tangible progress in Feb when it entered Afghanistan when Turkmenistan completed construction of the pipeline.

Inter State Gas Systems (Pvt) Limited (ISGSL), executing the project in Pakistan, initiated the FEED activities of the project in March last year.

A project of 1990’s witnessed many ups and downs finally got a push this time. The government made it a key component of the government’s National Energy Policy to import gas.

The pipeline would help increase power generation capacity to meet country’s future energy needs, create more jobs and strengthen national economy.

Under the project, a 56-inch diameter 1,680 km pipeline, having capacity to flow 3.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) gas, would be laid from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and Pakistan up to Pak-India border, which is scheduled to complete in the year 2020. Funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Pakistan and India would be provided 1.325 bcfd gas each besides 0.5 bcfd gas for Afghanistan.Pakistan, as reports claim is expected to achieve financial close of the pipeline this year.