30 April 2009, Dhaka - The use of diesel to power factories due
to constant power cuts has increased production costs in Bangladesh’s
knitwear sector by 20 percent.
Speaking to the Daily Star on Tuesday, BKMEA President
Fazlul Hoque said: “The power situation
turned so bad that outages continue through half of the factories’ total production
period.”
“The production cost is increasing significantly due to the
power and energy crises in the factories as the owners will have to depend on
diesel,” Hoque said. He also told a meeting with State Minister for Power &
Energy, Shamsul Haque Tuku at his secretariat office, that on top of that, the price
of apparel is declining because of the global recession.
Leaders of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters
Association (BKMEA) met with the state minister to seek measures to improve
power and energy supplies to their factories. Hoque suggested that the
government supply gas to the knitwear factories, even at the expense of halting
gas supplies to the country’s fertiliser factories, as there is the option of
importing fertiliser from the international market.
The BKMEA chief said the government can import fertiliser
from the international market, but knitwear is a local export item. “The
government must keep alive the readymade garment sector,” he said.
Source: The Daily Star
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