BIG CONTRACT IN PAKISTAN

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27638, 20 April 1955, Page 9

BIG CONTRACT IN PAKISTAN

Krupps To Build New Steel Plant (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, April 19. The German firm of Krupps has signed a final agreement with the Government of Pakistan to build a steel plant at the town of Kot on the river Indus, says the Bonn correspondent of the “Manchester Guardian.”

The plant will have a capacity of 55,000 tons of steel a year, but will later be expanded to produce 380,000 tons.

It will cost more than £8,000,000. The Pakistan deal follows the recent announcement that Krupps has signed a contract to build a steelworks and an adjoining city for 100,000 inhabitants in India.

German firms are also to build ships for Pakistan, barges on the Indus and its tributaries, and cement and sugar-beet factories, and textile factories to develop the country’s jute resources:

The correspondent says that the financing of these projects will be undertaken up to 75 per cent, by the Pakistan Government, which hopes to secure outside assistance under the Colombo Plan ‘ and from the World Bank.

The Pakistan contract is another milestone in the astonishing progress of Krupps in the constructional engineering field.

The secret of the firm’s success is simpler than at first it appears. For the last three years it has been sending out teams of engineering experts to advise governments of countries containing large undeveloped areas. The teams not only pay their own way but, understandably, influence governments to turn over constructional contracts to Krupp and associated German firms.

One outstanding difficulty—that of the payment—is being eased by the International Bank, the United States Foreign Operations Administration, and the Colombo Plan.