Home ›› 12 Dec 2022 ›› Nation
Most of the brick kilns in Barishal have stopped production due to an acute coal shortage in the district.
Brick kiln owners said they are refraining from buying coal at a higher price as it may lead them to lose money in the end. Some kiln owners are preparing to produce bricks by burning wood as they have debts to pay off.
District Brick Kiln Owners Association sources said coal was Tk 7,500 per tonne in 2019. In three years the price has quadrupled to Tk 30,000 per tonne.
Owners are worried about incurring losses with the increased production cost. Alongside the high price, there is also a crisis of coal supply in the district.
According to the district administration and the Department of Environment (DOE), there are about 300 brick kilns in 10 upazilas of the district. As there is a government-enforced ban on using wood, owners have no other way but to use coal to fuel their kilns.
Hemayet Uddin Badol, manager of Raki Bricks in the Doarika area of Babuganj upazila of the district, said the brick-making season usually begins in the Bengali month of Kartik, but due to Cyclone Sitrang, the production was delayed this year.
Production has yet to begin this season even after a month as the owners fear heavy losses due to increased costs, he added.
Salam Bricks’ Manager Md Selim said the price of brick has remained the same even though the price of fuel has increased substantially.
“Continuing production at this rate will lead to substantial losses on the owners’ part. Due to this many kiln owners have yet to start production for the season,” he said.
Selim further said they expected the price of coal to fall but so far it has not changed.
Commenting on usage of wood as fuel, he said, “The owner had previously taken a high-interest bank loan to sustain the business. Moreover, many buyers have paid in advance for brick, so we had to start production to fulfil those orders.”
MD Abbas Uddin, the owner of Fine Bricks, said, “If we buy coal at the current rate, we will have to sell per thousand bricks at the rate of Tk 15,000-16,000 to cover investment cost. But no one will buy bricks at such a high price from us.”
He added that they have started production by burning wood to compensate for the loss they suffered in the past few years.
Brick kiln owner Md Aslam Khan of Babuganj upazila said the industry has suffered a huge blow during the pandemic.
“I have suffered financially with the increasing prices of coal in the past three years and the slow business in the past two years. And now we cannot even buy coal at high prices because of the supply shortage,” he said.
According to kiln owners, due to the ongoing dollar crisis importers are unable to open Letters of Credit (LCs) which has led to decreased imports.
Asaduzzaman Khosru, president of the District Brick Kiln Owners Association, said the government has banned burning wood in brick kilns.
“However, since the price of coal has doubled since last year, most owners were unable to produce bricks. The central leaders of the association have been informed of the supply shortage and high prices,” he added.
Barishal DOE Director Md Abdul Halim said, “The divisional commissioner has been made aware of the coal shortage. However, even if coal is not available, using any other substance including wood as fuel is illegal.”
