Grid failure affects industries

Saturday’s collapse of national grid has hit RMG and cold storage industries hard. Country -wide power outage resulted in production loss, sudden rise in production cost, delay in shipment and increase in shipment cost in the RMG industry. Vice president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Md Shahidullah Azim told bdnews24.com that every factory spent Tk 8000/9000 per hour to buy fuel. Even an hour of no production makes it difficult to maintain daily production target. Moreover, RMG exporters also face the risk of shipment delay. Md Shaidullah Azim, however, said the ongoing strike costs them more dearly than the power cut. During strikes, vehicular movement across the country comes to a halt. In such circumstances, exporters often opt for expensive air shipment to meet the deadline. Shahidullah said,” We are now in the peak season. We are getting orders from foreign buyers. Strikes at this time of the year are very detrimental to the industry. If we lose orders due to political tensions, it will be harder to get those orders back when the situation calms down.” Another sector that was hit by this recent power cut is the cold storage industry. The industry heavily depends on electricity. There are currently more than 400 cold storages, which mainly store perishable produce. Most of the cold storages incurred additional fuel costs in this recent power crisis.