Siddiqsons Tin Plate Ltd Shuts Down Plant in Balochistan

Siddiqsons Tin Plate Ltd (STPL) has decided to shut down its factory due to heavy taxation, low sales, and a workers’ strike. In a notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange, the company stated that it had initiated the formal process to shut down its plant located in Winder, Balochistan. The company had been grappling with a reduction in sales, primarily due to tax exemptions in the FATA/PATA region, which had skewed the competitive landscape. Additionally, the rise in the use of Galvalume for food packaging, a material deemed hazardous to health, had further eroded the demand for traditional tinplate. To compound these challenges, an illegal strike by retrenched workmen had brought operations at the Winder plant to a standstill, making it impossible to continue production. The company will review the current position provided the government takes action against the health-hazardous use of Galvalume in food packaging and establishes effective control over sales tax/income tax-exempted tinplate imports in Fata/Pata which is sold to the Pakistani market. “As per the procedure laid down in the Industrial and Commercial Employment (Standing Orders) of 1968 for closure of an establishment, the company shall obtain permission from the Labour Court, and intimate the Pakistan Stock Exchange of further developments in due course,” the notice said. Incorporated in Pakistan on Jan 29, 1996 as a public limited company by shares under the Companies Ordinance 1984, STPL is engaged in the manufacturing and sale of tin plates, cans, and other steel products for the packaging of cooking oil, fruits, vegetables, seafood, lubricants, etc.