Mostafa-Hakim Group expands steel production capacity
Mostafa-Hakim Group yesterday released a fresh MS rod production center to expand its gross annual production capacity by 4 lakh tonnes.
The maneuver comes just four years following the company create its first fully-automated rebar manufacturing facility called Golden Ispat.
The group invested Tk 1,000 crore, including Tk 700 crore from United Commercial Lender, to establish the brand new unit, HM Steel and Industries, in Chattogram's Karnaphuli Upazila.
Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury inaugurated the plant through a ceremony chaired by Mohamad Manjur Alam, managing director of Mostafa-Hakim Group and past mayor of Chattogram City Corporation (CCC).
Alam, nowadays the chairman of HM Metal and Industries as well, said Mostafa-Hakim Group currently employs around 4,000 persons as the new plant would create jobs for 1,500 more.
The group commenced its journey with shipbreaking in the first '80s before stepping into the steel industry in 1984 with a manual rod production plant named Golden Iron. After that it create a semi-automated mill called Golden Metal in 1987.
But after an extended gap, the group established Golden Ispat in 2017.
Over the last handful of decades, the Chattogram-based conglomerate has also invested in several ventures, including cement, oxygen, textiles, property and bricks, according to Mohamad Sarwar Alam, director of Mostafa-Hakim Group.
"A good response for the product quality items of Golden Ispat together with increasing household demand for steel encouraged this growth," he added.
HM Steel can manufacture 4 lakh tonnes of billet, the semi-finished item, to produce MS rods, angles, square bars, smooth bars and channels.
Golden Ispat can produce 2 lakh tonnes annually. Up to now, its show of the country's total development potential of 8 million tonnes is only 2.5 %.
Bangladesh Steel Re-Rolling Mills (BSRM), which includes two units and can create a combined 1.6 million tonnes of MS rod each year, currently leads the marketplace.
BSRM is accompanied by Abul Khair Steel with 1.3 million tonnes, GPH with 0.9 million tonnes and KSRM with 0.6 million tonnes.
Although GPH recently extended its capacity to 0.9 million tonnes, it is yet to choose full production and has placed the limit at 0.5 million tonnes, regarding to market insiders.
Over 140 steel factories of varying sizes are in operation.
However, the neighborhood demand stands at 6.5 million tonnes annually against an gross annual production capacity of 8 million tonnes.
Alam, also a director of the newly constructed HM Metal, said local demand rises every day.
The country's per capita steel consumption has doubled within the last few years and there continues to be an enormous scope of rural and overall infrastructural development.
The government in addition has taken numerous mega projects which would need more steel in the coming years, Alam said.
With the new plant, the group's MS rod development capacity would reach 6 lakh tonnes.
"Our two models would combinedly contribute 7.5 to 8 per cent of the country's total capacity," Alam added.
