Cable industry thrives on housing growth
Sajjadur Rahman
Domestic cable industry has been growing for the last 10 years mainly due to the enormous growth in the country's housing sector.
The number of cable manufacturing units is rising. Only five years ago there were 20 factories and now the country has around 200 factories. However, only 10 are engaged in producing power and industrial cables.
“The cable factories can now meet cent per cent of the local demand,” said Enayet Hossain Chowdhury, president of Bangladesh Electrical Merchandise Manufacturers Association (BEMMA).
Although there is no concrete data on the annual turnover of the domestic wire and cable market, it is assumed to be between Tk 1,500 crore and Tk 2,000 crore, according to the BEMMA.
“The industry is growing at an average of 15 percent annually, mainly because of the growth of the housing sector and industries,” Chowdhury said.
The real estate sector contributes over 7 percent to the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and the industrial sector has also been witnessing double-digit growth for the past several years.
Rathindra Nath (Lashkar), assistant marketing manager of newly built Aziz Cables Industries Ltd, said the cable business is directly involved with the housing business.
Developers are now the big buyers of cable, he added.
Tanvirul Huq Probal, president of the Real Estate Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB), said cable and electrical equipment constitutes of about 10 to 12 percent of the total cost of an apartment, adding that fifty percent of which is spent on cable alone.
Probal said, “We are proud that local companies are producing high quality cable, even better in quality than that of Indian cables.”
Once the state-owned Eastern Cable dominated the domestic cable market. But soon after the liberation in 1971, cable companies including BRB, Paradise, Poly and Sunshine entered the market.
A good number of new companies such as Singer Cables, Racer Cable Industries, Aziz Cables, BCI Cables Industries, Polo Cables, Dhaka Cables, SRS Cables, Supersun Cables and Citizen Cables entered the market in the past three years.
Big market players however feared that small manufacturers duplicate their product to make huge profit.
“Many small companies, most of whom are unauthorized, duplicate products of renowned cable companies,” Mohammad Shibly Hasan, a marketing executive of Paradise Cables, one of the pioneers in Bangladesh, said.
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Cable industry flourishes
Demand rises on expansion of power gridlines
Jagaran Chakma
Thu Jul 26, 2018 12:00 AM Last update on: Sat Jul 28, 2018 04:27 PM
Bangladesh's cable market is growing at 15-20 percent a year thanks to the expansion of power gridlines as the government looks to provide electricity for all by 2021.
In 2017, the cable manufacturing industry was worth about Tk 6,000 crore, up from Tk 2,000 crore 10 years ago, according to Ushamoy Chakma, managing director of Eastern Cables.
“The demand for cables is increasing due to the expansion of power grid lines across the country in the last four years,” he said.
There are more than 70 cable manufacturers in the market but the market leader is BRB with a 41 percent share, followed by Eastern at 15 percent, BBS at 13 percent, Paradise, Partex and Bizli at 6.5 percent each, and SQ at 5.3 percent.
The other players account for 22.2 percent of the market.
The cable manufacturers are dependent on raw material imports from Chile, China, India, Oman, Malaysia, South Korea and Singapore.
Chakma said their market survey found that the sector witnessed an average growth of 15 percent in the last 15 years.
The demand for cable is not only for the gridlines, it also has a big market in the housing and industrial sectors, he said.
The local players would have thrived more had they gotten the big contracts of the Bangladesh Power Development Board and Rural Electrification Board; those go to Chinese vendors thanks to their lower offers.
“The project implementation agencies prefer Chinese companies because of their lower prices -- without any care for the quality of the product. Bangladeshi companies are now manufacturing world-class conductors and cables,” he added.
Rafiqul Islam Rony, head of marketing and sales of BRB Cable, said the sector will witness further growth in the coming years as the government has a master plan to supply power to all.
He went on to express concern about the substandard cables manufactured by the non-branded companies.
“At least 120 companies are manufacturing cables and wires in Bangladesh but not many maintain quality,” he added.
Counterfeit products, inadequate quality control and products made with low-quality raw materials are the main challenges for the sector, said Md. Mosharraf Hossain, chairman of Paradise Group.
He went on to inform users about the importance of certification of international cable certification bodies.
