Home ›› 27 Sep 2021 ›› Front
The consumption of stone as a durable building material goes up over the years on a par with the ongoing development spree, and so is the import cost that could be tamed by focusing on domestic quarries.
The ongoing construction projects – Padma Bridge, Karnaphuli Tunnel, Metro Rail and highways, economic zones, ports and plants, and modern office and residential complexes -- are major consumers of the rocks solely imported from India, Dubai, Vietnam and Bhutan.
More than 50 per cent of stones are imported from India, 40 per cent from Dubai and the rest from Vietnam and Bhutan.
There are 10-12 quarries in places like Sylhet, Habiganj, Sunamganj, Kanaighat, Companiganj, Gowainghat, Sreepur, Lovachhara and Bichnakandi where 50 lakh tonnes of stones could be extracted from to meet the local demand, thereby saving foreign exchange.
The market size of stone is over Tk 700 crore per annum and its growth is estimated to be 15 per cent year-on-year, industry people said. Importer and Proprietor Zafor Mahmud of Mahmuda Enterprise said the development projects in private and government sectors have shot up the volume of stone import.
“Even no earlier than five years ago stones worth Tk 50 crore to Tk 60 crore used to be brought from abroad. Now the import figure ranges between Tk 700 crore and Tk 750 crore,” viewed Zafor.
“There are around 600-700 importers in the country. Of them, over 500 bring in the rocks through land ports.”
Zafor gave an idea of the price category of four types of stones he makes sale. The ¾-inch stone is priced at Tk 3500 to Tk 3600 per ton depending on quality, 5/8-inch at Tk 3400, ½-inch at Tk 3000 to Tk 3100 and ¼-inch at Tk 2800 to Tk 2900.
Talking to The Business Post Akij Group Manager Humayun Kabir said they have been buying different sizes of stones from Dubai as infrastructure development is being carried out on a large scale in the country.
“The Dubai stone is better than that from other countries. We bring stones for our own purposes and for different projects under Public Private Partnership. Besides, we sell them to big customers too,” he added.
“The amount of stone import came down to 350,000 tonnes due to Covid-19 last year. We have set an import target of around 9 lakh tonnes in 2021,” according to Humayun.
Asked about specific import figure, the Akij Group manager said there is no exact data about the sector, but around 55 per cent rocks are sourced from India, 35-40 per cent from Dubai and the rest from Bhutan and Vietnam.
The biggest companies like Bashundhara, Meghna, Abul Khair and Crown Cement Groups are brining stones in bulk quantities.
The country purchased 1, 88,24,000 tonnes of stones in Fiscal Year 2019-20. Of them, 72 lakh tonnes made way through naval routes and over 1-crore ton through land ports such as Hili, Sonamosjid, Moddopara, Bhomra and Tamabil.
The importers explained that the price of stones did not increase more but carrying cost did over the last one year.
The shipping cost from Dubai to Dhaka rose from $ 13 to $ 28 per ton.
They urged the government to provide a duty-free facility for the product in the best interest of the big projects being implemented across the country.
“We have to pay Tk 1,167 for per ton of the building material as customs duty, port duty, VAT, SD, and AIT, thus shooting up the cost. The duties should be reduced to boost the sector,” they said.
The traders emphasised the need for steps to extract stones from domestic sources instead of depending on foreign sources alone that will reduce their cost and save foreign exchange.
“We were passing a difficult time due to the pandemic as all land ports were closed. Besides, construction work also came to a halt,” they observed.
Sources said around 200 to 300 stone-laden trucks enter through each land port every day carrying around 60 tonnes of stone; in total some 1000 to 1500 trucks get into Bangladesh from India through all land ports.
General Secretary of Stone and Sand Traders Association Md Jahangir Alam urged the government to allow extraction from the country’s quarries in compliance with regulations.
The proprietor of M/S Alif Builders said extortion in river and land routes is a big challenge for traders who have to pay at least 15 points from Sylhet to Dhaka.
“We part with Tk 30,000 to Tk 40,000 as extortion. Political goons and administration officials including police extort the sum. Besides, lease holders demand Tk 3,000 to Tk 5,000,” he pointed out.
The trader maintained that due to its supply crunch in the wake of Covid-19, stone price needs to be hiked or else they have to incur a big loss.
There are 100 registered traders from Kanchpur Bridge area to Demra Bazar, and around 10-12 lakh people are engaged directly in stone industry.
Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh vice-president Kamal Mahmud said now stones are used in nearly 80 per cent in roofing and piling activities to strengthen buildings.
“Once upon a time brick chips were used in place of stones. Now situation has changed,” he said, urging the government to fix stone price so unscrupulous traders can’t get the upper hand.
Managing Director of Building for Future Ltd Engineer Tanveerul Haque Probal said it is difficult to calculate the quantity of stones to build a structure without analyzing its building design.
“However, as per thumb rules, we can say that around 1-2 CFT stone is needed to construct a square foot of a commercial building,” Probal told The Business post.
He said as per a general calculation 10 truck of stones are needed against five trucks of sands to build a commercial building.
