Energy Bangla

Production at the garment backward-linkage industries has decreased by nearly 40 per cent due to an acute gas crisis, posing a threat to timely shipment of finished readymade garment products for export, apparel exporters said.
According to the industry people, garment backward-linkage factories — knitting, washing and dyeing units — at Savar and Ashulia of Dhaka and Gazipur have been facing an acute gas crisis for last one and a half months.
There are 150-200 vertical backward-linkage factories in the areas.
Leaders of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association have recently urged the energy ministry, Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company, and Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation to solve the crisis saying that the production capacity of many factories in the area decreased by 40 per cent.
BGMEA president Md Siddiqur Rahman on Monday requested the state minister for power and energy, Nasrul Hamid, to resolve the issue immediately.
The state minister said that the pressure of gas would be normal after the repair of the leakage in the pipeline under the River Pungli in Tangail.
The leakage occurred on October 5.
The junior minister also said that the repairing of the supply line would take more than one month.
The BGMEA president demanded uninterrupted gas supply to the RMG factories by suspending supply of gas to fertiliser factories.
‘Considering the importance of export-oriented sector, the government should provide gas to the RMG sector by suspending supply to the fertiliser factories,’ Siddiq said.
If the government does not consider the BGMEA proposal, many entrepreneurs would be forced to lay off their factories, he said.
According to the statistics of some companies, the production in knitting, washing and dyeing units decreased significantly and the companies faced huge losses in last one and a half months.
Matrix Sweater Ltd in Gazipur is losing production of 12,500 pieces each day against its actual capacity while East West Services Ltd is losing production of 10,000 pieces due to the acute gas crisis.
A good number of factories in Gazipur and at Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka, have been facing huge financial losses as dyeing and washing activities remained stopped in the units for last one month, RMG makers said.
Divine Textile in Gazipur, which have 2,600 workers, faced damage of Tk 16 lakh in one month as production was hampered at the unit due to the gas crisis.
The production loss in knitting, dyeing and washing units is posing threat to timely shipment of RMG products for export, BGMEA vice-president Mahmud Hassan Khan Babu told New Age on Monday.
He said that some of the factory owners had started to convert their boilers into diesel-powered from gas-powered ones to continue production at their units but the cost of production using diesel was seven times higher than that of gas-based production.
‘We requested the government to solve the ongoing crisis and low pressure of gas for the sake of the industry as well as for economy. The BGMEA will make a formal request to the Prime Minister’s Office soon as the situation has become grave,’ Babu said.
If the situation persists, the shipment of finished RMG products would be delayed and exporters would have to bear the brunt of air shipment, discount and cancelation of orders, he added.