Summary Scrap from the war could be worth over $80 million on the international market.
KABUL (Reuter) - 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 United States almost $6 billion 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 United States 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 $80 million on the international market, according to Reuters calculations.
“Scrap is a big deal,” said U.S. Brigadier-General Steven Shapiro, deputy of 1st Theater 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 told Reuters in an interview this week.
