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Local cement cos ready to make foray into India

M Abdur Rahim
Local cement companies are ready to make foray into cement-hungry eastern Indian states with some leading producers already getting Indian standard clearance.
Holcim (Bangladesh) and Shah Cement Limited have achieved Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Certificate, a standard requirement that earlier restricted cement export to India. And Aramit and Confidence Cement are in final stage to get the certificates.
India's seven eastern states bring cement from Madhya Pradesh. Cement shipment by road takes 20
days to reach the seven states. But the shipment of cement to those states, from Bangladesh takes only three hours or a day at best.
Industry sources say the eastern Indian states have a growing cement market especially in Tripura and Assam where construction sector is secingboom in recent times.
As Bangladeshi cement is price competitive, the provincial govem-menLs and chambers forwarded the standard issue to Indian central government andipushed it to give nod to Bangladesh cement manufacturers, the sources added.
Holcim (Bangladesh), the first local cement company to get the BIS
certificate, has got three letters of credit for 1,600 tonnes ofeement from lYipunc The shipment will be completed soon.
A high official of Holcim (Bangladesh) said preliminary study shows that 1.5 lakh tonnes of cement can be exported to Tripura alone. "The seven sister states have a huge cement market and with Bangladeshi companies getting standard clearance it is possible to grab the market there,* he said.
Holcim plans to send expert team soon tn conduct market survey there to boost export, he also said. Bangladeshi manufacturers need more market understandings and
increased interactions with Indian business community to grab the opportunity, headded.
Investment saturation puts Bangladesh on huge cement production base. At present, some 40 operational companies have an installed production capacity of 1.5 crore tonnes a year while the local consumption is only 70 lakh tonnes. The low capacity utilisation is causing huge loss to the industry and leading to demise of the minnows.
Sources say when Lafarge Surma Cement, a green field company, will go into production in 2006, it may create a glut in local cement market The lone integrated dry process cement plant
in Bangladesh will produce 1.2 million tonnes cementperyear.
Against this backdrop industry people say, access to a growing Indian market can be a strong boost to Bangladesh's over-invested cement sector.
In a visit to Dhaka last month, ML Debnath, president of TYipura Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the eastern states arc willing to import cement from Bangladesh. He, however, mentioned that if transport and infrastructure facilities at land port could be improved, more Indian people would import cement from Bangladesh.