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Fake ship furniture trade on the rise

Abdullah Al Mahmud
One of the thriving businesses in ship-brteakihglS’fast waning in theport city as unscrupulous traders are using cheap local timber in the name of ship furniture.
Every year several ocean going ships are dismantled at different yards along the coast at Sitakunda to procure various items such as steel, electronic devices, oil, toiletries and furniture.
The business on old furniture or ship furniture started with the inception of ship- breaking at Sitakunda in the district in the early eighties.
Having the nearby shipbreaking industries as its prime source, the business grew up along over a ten-kilometer stretch of Dhaka-Chittagong highway from Pahartoli Colonelhat to Madambiblrhat under Sitakunda upazila.
Local businessmen used to
buy the furniture in a lot at auction from a ship grounded for dismantling. Each ship, particularly the merchant Ship, has a lot of furniture, including beds, tables, sofas, chest of drawers, shelves and doors. Furniture were put on sale in original form and in a very few cases after a little repair of damaged parts if there was any.
The ship furniture with very simple but sophisticated designs and reasonable durability was of a tremendous demand. The furniture are also very light in weight and available here at cheap price.
People, particularly housewives, who had long been craving for household furniture but could not afford new ones, rushed for ship furniture. In the ship furniture shops a double bed (box typed plank) will cost around Tk 3000, a semi-double one Tk 2500 and a single-bed (divan like one) Tk2000. The shops offered a
dinning table at Tk 1500 and a chest of drawer at Tk 2500. The price of a set of sofa ranged from Tk 4,'50010 14,000, sources said.
They, are also of ahigher. demand to the bachelors as the latter can easily buy furniture like single-bed, chest of drawers and reading tables within Tk 6 thousand.
But original piece of ship furniture is difficult to be found there now, users said.
They said that both the quality and design of the ship furniture had dropped remarkably.
The traders now reportedly make furniture of "kerosine" wood, partex like hardboards and plywood with formica in the name of ship furniture, they added.
One Saiful Islam said that once the ship furniture was known for their durability, but at present they are remade. Tbday the furniture develops cracks on it within a very short time and are
worn out in five years, he said.
Shah Nawaj, a professional in the city, said that most of the materials used In ship furniture were bought from the local markets while one Mamun of Sitakunda said that 10 percent of the materials of the ship fumi -rare came from ship.
On the other hand, traders' denying the allegation said that Import of tankers instead of merchant ships was responsible for the non-availability of ship furniture in original forms.
Jamal Uddin, manager of a furniture shop at Pahartoli, said that a merchant ship brought for dismantling provided a lot of furniture while the tankers a few.
The original colour of ship furniture is also changed during the remaking, the users said.
The businessmen now redesign the furniture, coat them in teak colour removing the original sophisticated white-bony colour, they said.