Infrastructure equipment industry booming on mega projects
Bangladesh's infrastructure equipment making sector is undergoing sweeping adjustments to meet up the increased demand due to the execution of the government's mega assignments to accelerate monetary growth.
The require for highly advanced infrastructure equipment started its ascent when the federal government began construction of world-class development projects including the Padma bridge, Rooppur nuclear power plant, Matarbari power plants, Karnaphuli Tunnel and Dhaka Metro Rail.
With the impetus, the country's infrastructure equipment marketplace has grown steadily going back three to four years.
In 2019, the marketplace size for infrastructure equipment was about Tk 1,500 crore. In 2001, it had been less than Tk 100 crore, relating to market players. Within the last two years only, the demand for heavy-duty equipment increased practically 200 per cent.
"The amount of infrastructure and construction equipment that entered the country in the last two years is equivalent to the full total import of such machinery going back 20 years," explained Hafizur Rahman, managing director of the Bangladesh Gear Corporation (BEC).
The BEC is a retailer of infrastructure and materials handling equipment such as for example excavators, bulldozers, forklifts, backhoe loaders, soil compactors and cranes.
In the last 4 or 5 years, the demand for such equipment rose in Bangladesh as a result of ongoing development work undertaken by the federal government.
Rahman expects the soaring trend found in the demand for large construction equipment to keep for the next a decade as the quantity of infrastructure development tasks in Bangladesh increase as well.
The federal government has about $30 billion worth of production projects under construction in the united states in a bid to mitigate Bangladesh's infrastructure issues and attract foreign immediate investment to accelerate the country's financial growth.
Other than that, the development sector grew 16.25 % year-on-year to Tk 73,594 crore in fiscal 2016-17 and the real estate sector 15.14 % to Tk 61,935 crore, in line with the Bangladesh Bureau of Figures.
There are over 10 importers of durable construction and infrastructure gear including ACI Motors, Nitol Niloy Group and HNS Group.
Up to 60 per cent of the equipment obtainable in Bangladesh is reconditioned and so are sometimes Japanese or German products, said M Samsuzzaman, general manager of ACI Motors, which entered the marketplace in 2014 and represents among the world's top producers of whole line construction equipment, Circumstance Construction Equipment.
"However, the use of Chinese devices has risen since 2008," he explained, adding that reconditioned infrastructure and structure devices from Japan and Dubai happen to be doing well too.
There are largely four types of infrastructure equipment used in Bangladesh: earth-moving, road construction, metal handling, and bridge construction.
Most durable construction and infrastructure devices now originates from China just as Bangladeshi contractors prefer Chinese goods because it is comparatively cheaper than that of Japan or Germany, said Abdul Matlub Ahmed, chairman of Nitol-Niloy Group, an Indian company of durable trucks, bulldozers, cement mixers, etc.
However, the marketplace size for infrastructure products is however to see any specific significant increase just as contractors rent the required equipment from Singapore while foreign contractors bring their private.
Chinese construction machinery and equipment producers control 60 % of the market as a result of their competitive pricing.
The remaining 40 % is imported from Korea and Japan, Ahmed added.
However, the current demand for equipment continues to be low weighed against that of other growing countries, according to Mohammed Shahidul Islam, chairman of HNS Group.
HNS, a good distributor of South Korean automotive giant Hyundai, imports major infrastructure and construction equipment, including excavator, skid loader and such, from Korea.
