KARACHI: Five new motorcycle assembling units would soon start working in the country, as the authorities have formally given approval to the vendors, industry sources Thursday said.
The new plants would add cumulatively add 10 percent more capacity to the e existing strength of 500,000 units a year.
Islamabad has issued five licenses for establishing units during a meeting between Motorcycle Assemblers Forum (MAF) and Engineering Development Board of Pakistan held in Islamabad on Wednesday, sources in the board told Daily Times.
“Applications of five out of the six applicants were cleared by the board,” said the source. “Seven more applications would be discussed in the next meeting.”
He said that the sixth application was refused by the committee of the board, as it had not submitted all the required documents. The other seven applications are in the process of preparation at different levels.
According to the sources the five successful applicants were Blue Star Automobile Lahore, Zimco Pakistan Lahore, Supper Conic Corporation Karachi, Unique Hyderabad and Laser Karachi. The board has allowed these units to assemble 70cc motorbikes.
The required procedure for laying an assembling unit starts with an application to the board. the board subsequently directs the applicant to provide details regarding the land chosen for the plant, its capacity, engineering equipments and some other details. Then the application is routed through different department including Central Board of Revenue (CBR) and Pakistan Standard and Unit Committee for clearance.
According to the sources, with entry of these five new units, there would be a total of 24 units assembling Chinese brand motorbikes in the country. There are three other units engaged in production of Japanese brands motorbikes.
He said these five units are expected to assemble around 50,000 units to 55,000 units every year. During the previous one year, 500,000 motorbikes were sold, including 350,000 Japanese brands and 150,000 bikes Chinese brand. With arrival of new units in the business, there is a fair chance of further decline in the prices of motorbikes in Pakistan.
Sources said that the new units would significantly contribute to the economic growth in general as well as large scale manufacturing sector. The large-scale manufacturing has already made a tremendous growth in the country as it registered 18 percent growth for the year 2003-4.