FAISALABAD: Brick kiln owners have warned that more than 600 kiln houses in and around Faisalabad will stop their business if remedial measures are not taken to halt the abnormal increase in coal prices.

Talking to the media on Monday, Brick Kiln Owners Association Divisional President Saeed Ahmad Sindhu said the government should take steps to ensure that coal mine operators did not play havoc with the kiln industry.

He claimed that miners were arbitrarily and unilaterally raising coal prices, which had gone up from Rs2,500 to Rs5,000 per ton at Hyderabad coal market while prices in Quetta market had increased from Rs7,500 to Rs11,000 per ton.

He said kiln houses had been left with no option but to increase prices of bricks which would make them unaffordable for brick users. Brick rates would certainly go up from Rs5,400 to Rs8,000 per 1,000 bricks, he added.

Sindhu said over 600 kiln houses were working in Faisalabad division which would likely close down in the wake of high coal prices, putting in jeopardy jobs of more than 250,000 kiln workers. He asked the government to take remedial measures and stop price manipulation by the miners.