ISLAMABAD: The Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD) has suspended the purchase of steel bars for a week in protest of the high prices, which have reached up to Rs303,500 per tonne.
The ABAD chairman, Altaf Tai, stated that the members of the association will not unload steel bars at construction sites and will review the situation next Wednesday to decide on future actions.
He believes that the high prices of steel bars are due to the absence of government regulations and the manufacturers taking advantage of the situation.
The chairman also suggested that there is another option to bring finished steel bars from Iran at a lower cost, but the cost of good quality construction has still risen due to the increase in steel and cement prices.
The secretary general of the Pakistan Association of Large Steel Producers, Syed Wajid Bukhari, justified the price hikes by stating that the shortage of foreign exchange has caused letters of credit to not be opened, resulting in a lack of imported raw materials.
He added that the local scrap prices and mill capacity had also contributed to the increase. Bukhari urged the government to come up with a local scrap production policy to address the issue.
