Bankrupt Pakistan Steel Plant Finally Gets a New Life! The largest steel plant in Pakistan was the Pakistan Steel Plant, built with Soviet aid in the 1970s. Due to insolvency and sluggish business, it was forced to shut down in 2015 and was officially closed in 2024. After prolonged communication, Pakistan and Russia signed an agreement to restart and expand the Pakistan Steel Plant. After all, it's a steel plant built by the Soviet Union, and Russia taking over to restart it is understandable!
Russia defeated companies from many countries, including the United States, the European Union, China, the Middle East, and Turkey, and after dozens of rounds of contact and negotiations, they all failed. Russia proposed more favorable conditions to Pakistan, especially a complete update of the factory and equipment, providing core technology and management experience. Russia is willing to take on this project, participate in the investment and construction of the energy transportation line connecting Karachi, spanning Central and South Asia, which will benefit Pakistan for a long time.
Russia used its veto power, arguing that the Pakistan Steel Plant was a Soviet-aided project, and should be inherited and operated by Russia, absolutely not allowing its control to be transferred to enterprises of other countries. The biggest difficulty for Russia in taking over the Pakistan Steel Plant is the need for over ten billion dollars in initial investment; it is unknown whether Russia can come up with this amount of money!
The Pakistan Steel Plant, built with Soviet aid, is now being inherited and rebuilt by Russia, which is not a big problem, as Russia has a veto power. As long as Russia wants to take over, no other country can take over the Pakistan Steel Plant. However, if the Pakistan Steel Plant were easy to revitalize, it wouldn't have gone bankrupt. It operated for 50 years before eventually going bankrupt, because of outdated production processes, substandard product quality, or various high costs, leading to its eventual bankruptcy.
Russia has the ambition to comprehensively revive the Pakistan Steel Plant, but whether it has enough funds and capabilities to revitalize it is another matter. For Pakistan, it must revitalize this largest steel plant in the country to avoid being controlled by others, especially since there are more steel plants in India. If Pakistan does not have its own steel plant, it may face greater pressure in future wars. Therefore, restoring the normal operation of the steel plant is Pakistan's top priority, and this is without question.
However, Russia is currently involved in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, and it is uncertain whether it can provide the initial funds on time into Pakistan's account to complete the initial construction and upgrade of the equipment. The most critical issue is that Russia's funds are too tight. In normal times, Russia should have no problem. But during the war, it is difficult for Russia to allocate such a large amount of money.
It cannot be expected to have great hopes for Russia's restart of the Pakistan Steel Plant, as it may take several more years, because the promises Russia made to Pakistan are too big, including energy cooperation, economic cooperation, and various developments, which are really hard to achieve. Even if India slightly opposes, Russia may not be able to do so.
It is also not impossible for India to collude with Russia to trick Pakistan.
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1838603762032772/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.