DHAKA, April 7 (Reuters) - Bangladesh's textile producers, major export earners, said on Monday that a government decision to limit gas use by industry would cause at least $18 million in lost production each month.

 

State-run Titas Gas and Transmission and Distribution Company (TGTDC) last week told all major industries to stop natural gas consumption for five hours a day at peak time to ease pressure on the power sector.

 

Textiles producers typically use the gas to generate their own power for production of cloth and garments because the public power supply is unreliable.

 

"We have been directed to cut gas used to generate electricity in our own plants to

40 percent, which means that we have to shut down our factories," said Abdul Hai

Sarkar, president of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association.

 

Despite gas reserves of its own, a shortage of gas and other constraints mean

Bangladesh can produce only up to 3,700 megawatts (MW) of electricity compared with installed capacity of 5,200 MW, officials said.

 

Hai said the gas cutback meant the sector would fall well short of the government target of raising textile exports by nearly 23 percent to $11.285 billion in the fiscal year to June 2008.

 

Bangladesh exports were a record $12.18 billion in the 2006/07 financial year, of which more than $9 billion came from garments.

 

"A number of countries including Italy, Spain, China, India, South Korea and Canada

have contacted us to invest in the sector assuming an uninterrupted natural gas supply, but after the new decision they may run away," Hai said.

 

(Reporting by Serajul Islam Quadir; Editing by Paul Bolding) © Reuters 2008 All rights reserve 

Comments (0)

Print

Tell friend

Top

---