KABUL: US forces in Afghanistan are hoping that a small steel industry can be born from the mammoth task of withdrawing equipment by the end of next year, jump-starting a scrap trade and injecting cash into local businesses.
It will cost the US almost $6bn to remove the enormous amount of materiel scattered in hundreds of bases across Afghanistan from the longest war in US history.
Most will be returned to the US by land, air and sea routes, namely via Pakistan’s Karachi port, but some of the equipment will stay on after the Dec 31, 2014 deadline for the exit of most combat troops.
US-made scrap from the war could be worth over $80m on the international market, according to calculations. “Scrap is a big deal,” said US Brigadier-General Steven Shapiro, deputy of 1st Theatre Sustainment Command, which oversees the “retrograde” or the removal of equipment.
“Ultimately the military can only do so much, the diplomats can only do so much, ultimately you want to generate economics,” Shapiro said in an interview this week.
“His unit organised what he amusingly dubbed a “scrap shura” last month south of the capital Kabul where businessmen were invited to learn about steel and scrap.
“Now they’re coming in and bidding on the tonnage,” Shapiro said of the tens of thousands of empty shipping containers and old models of Humvees and MRAP armoured vehicles, which cost half a million dollars each to make, and which will be scrapped.
Proceeds from sales are returned to the US treasury by the Defence Logistics Agency in Virginia.
US scrap could breathe life into Afghanistan’s fledgling steel industry, which only has five working mills, according to government-run Afghanistan Investment Support Agency.
Reuters
