the pakistan march, 2019 civil engineer · the pakistan civil engineer march, 2019 aspects. psce is...

The Pakistan March, 2019 Volume 3, Issue 1

Civil Engineer Official Magazine of the Pakistan Society of Civil Engineers

The Pakistan Civil Engineer March, 2019

Editorial Board

Rizwan Mirza Editor-in-Chief

Tahir Sultan Editor Abdul Latif Bahatti Editor

Azhar Ali Bhatty Editor Dr Riaz Akhtar Khan Editor

Sohail Raza Editor Sohail Kibria Editor

The Pakistan

Civil Engineer Pakistan Society of Civil Engineers

38, Block 1, Sector B-1 Township, Lahore 54770, Pakistan

Telephone: +92 42 3521 3356; +92 42 3521 3357 Email: [email protected]

URL: www.psce.org.pk

Page i Volume 2, Issue 2


Contents

Contents ................................................ ii

Editorial ................................................. 1

The Saga of Cement Industry of Pakistan2

Professional Education ........................... 6

Technical Drawing Skills ........................... 6

Professional Practice .............................. 7

Irrational Professional Fees ..................... 7

Biography .............................................. 7

Karl von Terzaghi – The Father of Geotechnical Engineering ........................ 7

Contributing to the Pakistan Civil Engineer ................................................ 9

Page ii Volume 2, Issue 2


Editorial This is the fourth issue of the Pakistan Civil Engineer is here. We take this opportunity to once again repeat our request for contributions to the Pakistan Civil Engineer, from our valued readers. Without the support of the entire civil engineering community, the magazine would not be able to cover all the varied aspects that need to be covered. Looking forward to your support, Rizwan Mirza Rizwan Mirza Chief Editor

Page 1 Volume 2, Issue 2


Cover Story

The Saga of Cement Industry of Pakistan Rizwan Mirza

Wet process plant, at Wah, of Associated Cement Company, established in 1921

ement plant at Wah, was the first unit to be established in the area that was to later become Pakistan. When Pakistan came into

being, it had units at Karachi, Rohri, Dandot and Wah, with a total annual production capacity of a mere 0.30 million Metric Tons. By 1954, the capacity rose to 0.66 million M. Tons while the demand was estimated at around 1.00 million M. Tons, per year. Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) augmented the capacity by the addition of ZealPak (0.24 million M. Ton per year) and Mapple Leaf (0.10 million M. Ton per year). In 1956, PIDC added two more plants at Dadu Khel and Hyderabad. Many more units were added later. Nationalisation Under the Economic Reforms Order, 1972, the government formed State Cement Corporation of Pakistan (SCCP)which nationalised 10 cement plants with an installed capacity of 2.80 million M.

Ton, per year. In the meanwhile, SCCP also added five new units with added a capacity of 1.80 million M. Ton, per year. The subsequent one-and-a-half decade remained uneventful as no new plants were added. This resulted in acute shortage of cement in late seventies and early eighties. Reliance was, therefore, placed on import of cement. Seven new units were established in the private sector up until the privatisation of the cement industry took place. Since 1992, the privatisation policy of the government resulted in divestment from eight cement plants. The aging existing units relied on the wet process of manufacturing, whereas the more efficient dry-process was adopted by the units to be added later.

C



As the names imply, ingredients are pulverised in presence of water in the wet process while in the case of dry process water does not accompany the ingredients at the time of grinding. The following flowchart shows how OPC is made:

Current Capacity

ccording to the data provided by All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA), the installed

capacity has markedly increased more than six-fold since 1990, as shown in the following figure:

With a total of 25 units operating in the country, the present installed capacity is 53.44 million M. Ton. This indeed is heartening for the country as if there no significant exports at the moment, the installed capacity is certainly performing the role of import substitution, thus saving precious foreign exchange. The production growth figure also shows a fluctuating capacity utilisation, which has fallen to as low as below 60% for several years. The provincial share of installed capacity is as follows:

A



The market share of individual units is as follows:



Another way of looking at market share would be to analyze the share of companies, rather than their individual units. This has been depicted in the following figure:



Interesting as it is, Bestway, with its four units, has 18% of market share. Luucky, with its two units has a market share of 15.76%. D. G. Khan, with its three units has a market share of 12.46% while Askari and Fauji, together have a market share of 10.70%. As such, the top four entities (with Askari and Fauji clubbed as one), with their 12 units have a collective market share of 57%. Price History The SCCP maintained extremely rigid control over the prices of Portland cement. However, after deregulation, the prices were set at large. The following price index, based on the official data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), shows the price index of OPC, with the year 1980 adopted as having an index of 100:

The broken part of the line reflects the data period missing at the web site of PBS. The dramatic rise of OPC prices in 2012 may be seen in the figure attached above. The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) accused the cement industry of cartelisation and attempted to tighten the noose around it. With the prices of the basic ingredients of OPC not having undergone any significant change, the CCP found little justification for a dramatic upward trend in the OPC prices. The cement industry, however, believed that raw material did not constitute a major cost component of cement and that other inputs contributed the major part of the cost. The allegations of reportedly unjustified increase in prices were apparently corroborated by the fact that cement prices had been steeply increased over the year starting with PKR 330 per bag in the month of January 2010 and touching PKR 425 per bag November and December 2010. Cement manufacturers had continued to increase the prices despite the reduction in sales tax and Federal

Excise Duty (FED) by 1 percent and PKR 200 per M. Ton respectively along with removal of 2.5 percent Special Excise Duty (SED) as announced in the Federal Budget of Fiscal Year 2011-12. This had yielded savings of PKR 22-23 per bag which had been accepted by the producers, apparently without transferring to the consumers any of the dividends of the fiscal relief announced by the government. According to official web site of CCP1, a CCP team raided the offices of APCMA on 12th January, 2012 to seize allegedly suspected incriminating record including emails and returned with what they had been informed, was present in the raided office. After initial restraining order by the courts, the CCP was finally allowed to proceed in accordance with the law. CCP determined that the matter attracted the provisions of Section 4 of the Competition Act, 2010 and imposed a penalty of PKR 6.3 Billion on APCMA and the individual manufacturers. It could, however, not control the prices, as apparently, it had no authority to do it, under the law.

Professional Education Technical Drawing Skills

kills related to reading and preparing technical drawings do not appear to receive a fair share of effort at undergraduate

engineering programs. While courses are offered under the said title, the course content appears to be wanting in many

1 http://cc.gov.pk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=225:16-january-2012&catid=2:uncategorised&lang=en

S



aspects. PSCE is not oblivious of the existing pressure of too many courses at the undergraduate level, but still feels that what is required would not require addition of a new course but would require a paradigm shift, so to speak. What is required is a shift of focus on professional drawings, after of course an introduction to drafting basics and also Encouraging students to provide hand-sketches of the design solutions, while studying design courses. A similar approach can also be adopted in the building construction courses. Also coupled to drafting and design is the concept of detailing, which is never taught under a separate course. A greater emphasis on actually drawing the design solution would inevitably bring into sharp focus many questions of detailing. This would be an additional merit of the suggested paradigm shift. It would be a tautology to repeat that civil engineering is an applied science and all training at the engineering schools needs to be targeted towards preparing the students for the real world. It appears that syllabi of professional disciplines are being prepared by the same bodies as have been charged with the responsibility of undertaking the same exercise for pure science or liberal arts. In the presence of professional bodies like PMDC, Pakistan Bar Council and Pakistan Engineering Council inserting additional watchdog bodies is likely to only a marginal utility and may in fact be a counterproductive exercise.

Professional Practice Irrational Professional Fees That for maintaining an incentive for producing quality, financial compensation for professional services needs to be fair and rational, is axiomatic. But it has been noticed that the average value of the said compensation in Pakistan has been brought down to an unworkably low value by some practitioners. This has already generated a tremendous pressure on the practice of civil engineering. Those, who are unable to lower the quality of their services, for reasons of professional ethics, and are also unable to charge rational fees under market pressures, have already abandoned the practice of the civil engineering. This is taking its toll in terms of a negative effect on the quality of services received by private as well as public sector. If this situation

persists for some time, complete chaos would result in the civil engineering industry. While PSCE is not a trade union, it expects its members to resist the current unethical trend of lowering the quality of services, in the best interest of the profession, and is ready to formally raise its voice to educate those who receive the services as well as those who provide them. The regulating body also needs to be approached to take stern action against those who are guilty of professional misconduct by rendering substandard professional services.

Biography Karl von Terzaghi –Father of Geotechnical Engineering

arl von Terzaghi (1883-1963), an Austrian, was born on October 2, 1883 in Prague where his father, Lieutenant-

Colonel Anton von Terzaghi, was stationed. Instead of opting for a military career, in the footsteps of his family, he joined the Technical University in Daraz to become a mechanical engineer. Obtaining a Diplom-Ingenieur, which is equivalent of a master’s, Terzaghi found a job with a Viennese firm active in the fields of hydroelectric plants and dams. He worked at projects in Croatia and Russia and soon realized that the vital importance of the ground conditions underlying a large project and also that the engineering knowledge at that time was insufficient in this respect.

K



He obtained his doctorate in technical science in 1912 and briefly visited he US, where he become conversant with whatever advancement had there been made. But he was quick to return as the World War-I broke out and was enrolled in the arm as a commanding officer of an aeronautical testing station near Vienna. In 1916 – two years after the start of the war – he was transferred to the Imperial Ottoman School of Engineering, Constantinople, as a professor of foundation engineering. Later he was shifted to Boğaziçi University. It was during his stay in Turkey that Karl von Terzaghi undertook experimentation resulting in quantitative assessment of engineering properties of various types of soils. His findings were published in his seminal 1925 work Erdbaumechanik auf Bodenphysikalischer Grundlage ( Earthwork Mechanics based on the Physics of Soils). The publication attempted to propose a mathematic way for analyzing the consolidation of cohesive soils, using a differential equation. The book also put forward the concept of effective stress in order to better understand the behavior of loaded soils. So illuminating were his findings that they earned him positions at MIT and the Technical University of Vienna.

Few men in a lifetime have exerted an influence on their profession to compare with that of Karl Terzaghi on civil engineering and engineering geology, wrote Arthur Casagrande.

1925

1943 1948

1960 1983

Despite slow acceptance of his ideas by some, Terzaghi's continued to contribute through writing, lecturing and practical application. Few realized that an altogether new discipline was in the making. In the 1930’s, Terzaghi's disciple Arthur Casagrande organized the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, with Terzaghi as its first President. Hitler occupied Vienna, forcing Terzaghi and his family permanently to Harward where, between 1938 and 1960, Terzahgi contributed two books and over hundred papers on topics ranging from the stability of slopes and conditions for the failure of soils to vibration problems and drainage mechanics.

Karl Terzaghi (middle) with Arthur Cassagrande (right)



Karl Terzaghi at the University of Illinois

During the same period, Terzaghi's consulting work extended to earth dams, the stabilization of landslides, foundations for buildings, waterfronts, highways and airports.

Ruth Doggett

His second wife and geology Ph. D., Ruth Doggett, became a trusted associate and often accompanied Terzaghi on these consulting trips.

Karl Terzaghi remains the only engineer to receive the Norman medal four times, the highest award conferred by the ASCE.

Austrian postal stamp commemorating the 100th birthday of Karl Terzaghi.

Contributing to the Pakistan Civil Engineer The Pakistan Civil Engineers would be happy to receive your contributions. Send a soft copy, whenever possible. You can send:

a) Articles b) Interesting project pictures (original or

free of copyrights) c) Details of significant civil engineering

projects d) Your professional and reasoned opinion

on an important issue. e) News of professional significance

including newspaper clippings, citing source

f) Other important professional information g) Identification of a topic that merits our

attention h) A letter to the editor

You do not need to be a writer in order to contribute; your professional skill is all we need. Please allow us to make editorial changes before we finally adopt a contribution.


the pakistan march, 2019 civil engineer · the pakistan civil engineer march, 2019 aspects. psce is...

Documents