THE IRON ORE & COAL BERTH AT PORT QASIM
( Pakistan Steel).
The
iron ore and coal (essential raw materials) used in Pakistan Steel are imported
primarily from the Canada, Brazil, Australia, Iran and India because resources
of iron ore and coal in Pakistan are quality wise poor and not economically
viable for manufacturing of iron & Steel in B.F.-LD-Converter route of
Pakistan Steel.
The
coal and iron ore arrive by sea in very large ships and are off-loaded at port
Qasim with grab unloaders.
The
Iron Ore and Coal berth commissioned in 1980 is a specialized berth for
handling Iron Ore, Coal & Manganese ore for Pakistan Steel Mills.
The
berth 279
meters in length is equipped with two grab unloaders (universal machines
unloading capacity 1000 tonne/hour each) which handle the Vessels of
upto 55,000 tonne payload.
The
design capacity of the berth stands is 3.36 million tonne per annum, where two 4.5 kilometer
long conveyor belts transport the raw materials to Pakistan Steel’s Stockyard.
Ores carrying very high quantities of hematite or
magnetite (greater than ~60% iron) are known as "natural ores"
or "direct
shipping ores",
meaning they can be fed directly into iron-making Blast
furnaces or
Direct reduction furnaces.
Australia and Brazil will lead the drive towards increased worldwide steel production capacity over the next several years.
The estimated amount of Iron ore deposits of the world over are approximately 800 billion tons.Iron
exists as natural ores mostly in the form of magnetite
(Fe3O4), hematite (Fe2O3).
The
others forms of iron ore like goethite (FeO(OH)), limonite (FeO(OH).n(H2O))
or siderite (FeCO3)
are small and need higher benefication cost.
Representative sources of Iron ores
are found in Brazil, Australia, Russia, Ukrain, mainland China, India, America,
Canada, South Africa, Iran and elsewhere. The phosphorus
and sulfur contents of ores differ greatly
according to their origin.
Australia and Brazil will lead the drive towards increased worldwide steel production capacity over the next several years.
Pakistan
Steel has to import approximately 1.7 million tonne of iron ore annually (minimum
60% Fe content of Iron Ore grade) and about 0.55 million tonne of metallurgical coal to achieve 1.1 million tonne/year capacity.
It takes about half hour to reach the raw material from jetty
to Pakistan steel’s stockyard.
RAW MATERIAL HANDLING
DEPARTMENT (R.M.H.D).
The
coals and Iron ore are imported through tenders raised by B.M.D. Pakistan
Steel and are transported via converyors from port Qasim to stockyard where they are
stored and carefully blended. Pakistan Steel’s raw material stock yard is equipped
with Boom type bucket wheel stacker- reclaimer
(shown above) for loading and unloading the coal and iron ore which are onward supplied to Coke oven,
Sintering plant and Iron Making Departments through conveyor system.
As
per project design, the existing production capacity of Pakistan steel is 1.1
million tonne /year which has a provision of future expansion to 2.2 million
tonne/year. For that reason there is a stocking capacity available for the raw
materials accordingly. Pakistan Steel is subjected to run on long term import
contracts of Iron Ore and Coking Coals. Keeping in view world wide coal and
iron ore price fluctuation, supply and demand dynamics, these
basic inputs may be stocked up to maximum available capacity rather than facing
a recent situation of raw material shortage and complete shutdown, caused a
loss of billions of Rupees.
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