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CI sheet market growing

Rafikul Islam
07 Aug 2022 00:00:00 | Update: 06 Aug 2022 23:20:40
CI sheet market growing

Abul Kalam Fokir (45) from Kodalpur Char under Goshairhat Thana of Shariatpur used to live in a house made of paddy and wheat straw with his four children but now he has built a new house with corrugated iron (CI) sheets after saving money.

“Earlier, I used to work in agricultural field as a day labourer but now I drive a van. After saving money I have built a four-square house with CI sheets as I don’t have sufficient money to construct a building,” he said.

Kalam said he purchased around nine bhans of sheets to build the house.

Nasir Uddin (52) from Demra in the capital was also building a factory with coloured CI sheets.

As CI sheet is light, can be installed faster, attractive, and more affordable I am using the colourful CI sheets in my factory,” he said.

“I have built the factory with the sheets. If I can earn more money and get a permanent space, I will build a three-storey building with concrete blocks,” Nasir also said.

The market of the galvanized corrugated iron (CI) sheet has almost doubled over the last one decade thanks to growing population and purchasing capacity of the people of remote areas in the country, according to industry insiders.

The sheets are used for roofing and cladding sides of residential and commercial houses and different factories.

The businesses said the annual demand for the sheets is around 10-12 lakh tonnes in Bangladesh but only a decade back it was 5-6 lakh tonnes.

They also informed that 90 per cent demand is met by locally manufacturing products and 10 per cent coloured sheets are imported from China, Taiwan, Japan, and India.

The five companies - PHP (Arabian Horse), Abul Khair (Cow Brand), TK Group (Eagle Brand), KDS Group (KY Brand), and S Alam Group (Galco Steels) - are now dominating the market here, they said.

Govt reduces taxes on raw materials of GI sheet

Placing the national budget for Fiscal Year 2022-23, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said galvanized iron sheet or steel products were one of the major raw materials used in the construction of physical infrastructure and in the Ashrayan Project of the government.

“Providing tax benefit to the industries engaged in manufacturing such products will make construction of physical infrastructure and implementation of the Ashrayan Project more cost-effective and easier. In this context, I propose to reduce the rate of tax from 5 per cent to 3 per cent on import of HR coil and zinc, raw materials used for manufacturing galvanized iron sheet or steel products,” he said in his budget speech.

Talking to The Business Post, Senior Deputy General Manager DGM of T.K. Group, Md Abdul Kader said there wouldn’t be any big impact on the retail market given the overall trade matters despite implementation of the move.

CI sheet market is expanding

The demand for CI sheets went up over the decade thanks to increasing population and socio-economic change.

“The annual demand for CI sheets is around 10-12 lakh tonnes in Bangladesh now, which was 5-6 lakh tonnes a decade ago. Some 90 per cent of the demand is met by locally manufacturing products and 10 per cent is met by imported coloured sheets from China, Tawan, Japan, and India,” Abdul Kader also informed.

“Our company meets around 10 per cent of total market demand. “We are working to further improve our products’ quality to improve market share,” Kader asserted.

According to KY Steel, the company currently holds 18 per cent of the total flat steel market of Bangladesh and yearly total sale of KY Steel is $270 million and production capacity is 200,000 MT every year. It has around 1323 employees.The KY Steel’s major products are CR Coil, GCI Sheets, Color Coated Sheets, CRFH and CRCA.

The annual report of the FY20 of S Alam Group said there is currently a gap between demand and supply of CI Sheets in Bangladesh. On the other hand, demand for CI Sheets is increasing sharply day by day.

The company has set up its factory on 12.02 acres of land at Kalarpool, Shikalbaha, Patiya, and Chattogram.

The company commenced commercial production of CR Strips Plant on 16 February 2004 with an approved annual capacity of 120,000 MT and NOF Plant of GP and CI Sheets on 11 July 2013 with an annual capacity of 72,000 MT.

The reports showed that around 30 per cent households in rural and urban areas are constructed with CI/GP sheet materials.

Color coated CGI Sheet, CGI sheet and GP sheet are produced 200 MT per day by two industrial units. Raw materials are collected from local sources and Imported from India, Korea, Japan, Russia, and China, Galco Steels (Bangladesh) Limited data said.

Hiked prices impact CI sheet business

“Our production cost goes up somewhat due to dollar rate and raw materials price hike in the last several months. The demand for CI sheets increased as housing and establishments are growing gradually due to increased population and changed socio-economic situation in the country,” Abdul Kader added.

Managing Director of M/S Lal Mohammad and Sons on the Bangshal Road Md Imran Hossain said he was selling three types of products. Price of each tonne of 22 mm CI sheet was Tk1, 28,000, 32 mm Tk1, 18,000 and 42 mm 1, 16,000 on June 13.

The price of each tonne of CI sheets increased by Tk7000-8000 compared to last five-six months. Now I am selling 26 mm CI sheet at Tk5, 700, 34 mm at Tk70, 50 and 42 mm at Tk8350,” he informed.

He said industrial items, including profiles, are sold at Tk45 per cft (0 point to 42 mm), 0 point to 46 mm at Tk50 and 0 point to 50 mm at Tk56. On the other hand, taly item is sold at Tk56-63 which was sold at Tk48-52 last year.

Imran also urged the government to take necessary steps to control inflation and all products prices so that both businesses and buyers can be benefitted.

President of Nayabazar Dhewtin Babsayee Samity Aftab Uddin said all of nearly 100 CI sheet trades in the area are under pressure to do business there.

“Once businesses used to pay a package VAT of Tk27000-28000 and now we have to pay over Tk50-60,000 per month. Besides, increased prices have also created obstacles in the way of our business,” he added.

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