Pakistan’s government says it will offer incentives to upgrade the country’s steelmaking technology in order to reduce costs and boost producers’ competitiveness against foreign steelmakers, according to local press reports monitored by Kallanish.

The pledge was made by the commerce ministry during a meeting this week with the Pakistan Steel Melters Association (PSMA). Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan said domestic steelmakers were unable to compete on cost or quality against their foreign counterparts because of outdated technology in Pakistan’s steel industry. The specifics of the incentives have not been made clear.

PSMA, meanwhile, says Pakistan’s producers are struggling to compete against Chinese product, and has called for the implementation of an import tariff. Neither PSMA, nor the commerce ministry responded before deadline to requests for comment.

Issues surrounding the quality of steel in Pakistan have been present for some time. Pakistani cold roller Aisha Steel Mills recently said it imports its entire hot rolled coil requirement due to the old technology at local producer Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), which renders PSM’s steel “inferior” in quality.

Prospective Pakistani rebar producer Dost Steels, meanwhile, has told Kallanish there is widespread practice in Pakistan of end-users having to order more rebar tonnages than required. This is to allow then to compensate for the significant proportion of “sub-standard” quality rebar, which has to be scrapped.