Generator suppliers count cost of gas crisis in RMG sector
Saturday, 6 February 2010
Mehdi Musharraf Bhuiyan
The prevailing gas crisis in the country's readymade garment (RMG) sector is making new investors shy away from investing in capital machinery, industry insiders said at the textile and garment exposition in the city Friday.
The Dhaka Textile and Garment expo- 2010, one of the biggest expositions of garment machinery, came to an end on the day.
The bulk of the ongoing energy shortage is felt by the big names among the power solution providers, the exhibitors said, as the turnover of such companies was hit hardest.
Major suppliers of gas-run generators for the garment industries reported a drop of almost 50 per cent in sales over the last 12 months, which they blamed on the unyielding gas crisis.
"The total market size or the compiled capacity of the gas-run generators sold in the country last year was 300 MW", said Rashedul Islam Bhuiyan, an official of Bangla Cat, one of the largest power solution providers in the country.
"However, due to the ongoing gas shortage our sale of generators for this year could drop by almost 50 per cent", he added.
Observers said such a trend is discouraging new investments in the sector and also affecting the production capacity of the garments industries.
"New investors are mostly absent at this year's exhibition as they are shying away from investing in machineries right now amid the current shortfall in energy", said Boshir Ahmed of Dana Engineers.
"At the end of the day, shortage of energy affects the production capacity of garments manufacturers at several critical stages, so this is not only a concern for the power solution providers," said Kazi Adnan Aziz of Prime Asia Limited.
His company has introduced an automatic hanger machine for the first time in Bangladesh which, the suppliers say, would save time in carrying products from one place to another at different stages of manufacturing.
Previously, Prime Asia's Automatic computerised designing, spreading and cutting systems were sold to 125 garment industries in Bangladesh, the company official said.
The prevailing gas crisis in the country's readymade garment (RMG) sector is making new investors shy away from investing in capital machinery, industry insiders said at the textile and garment exposition in the city Friday.
The Dhaka Textile and Garment expo- 2010, one of the biggest expositions of garment machinery, came to an end on the day.
The bulk of the ongoing energy shortage is felt by the big names among the power solution providers, the exhibitors said, as the turnover of such companies was hit hardest.
Major suppliers of gas-run generators for the garment industries reported a drop of almost 50 per cent in sales over the last 12 months, which they blamed on the unyielding gas crisis.
"The total market size or the compiled capacity of the gas-run generators sold in the country last year was 300 MW", said Rashedul Islam Bhuiyan, an official of Bangla Cat, one of the largest power solution providers in the country.
"However, due to the ongoing gas shortage our sale of generators for this year could drop by almost 50 per cent", he added.
Observers said such a trend is discouraging new investments in the sector and also affecting the production capacity of the garments industries.
"New investors are mostly absent at this year's exhibition as they are shying away from investing in machineries right now amid the current shortfall in energy", said Boshir Ahmed of Dana Engineers.
"At the end of the day, shortage of energy affects the production capacity of garments manufacturers at several critical stages, so this is not only a concern for the power solution providers," said Kazi Adnan Aziz of Prime Asia Limited.
His company has introduced an automatic hanger machine for the first time in Bangladesh which, the suppliers say, would save time in carrying products from one place to another at different stages of manufacturing.
Previously, Prime Asia's Automatic computerised designing, spreading and cutting systems were sold to 125 garment industries in Bangladesh, the company official said.