Steel Industry
Bangladesh is one of Asia’s emerging steel markets and holds a growing demand for quality materials and steel-fabrication technologies. The current annual consumption of steel is estimated to be around 4 million tons which is 5 times of 2008 levels. The industry consists of a number of steel re-rolling mills fabricating “long products” and limited types of “flat products” using imported hot rolled coils. The steel industry has been in a structural shift where large scale re-rollers are integrating the process of electric arc furnace owing to import tariff cut on scraps metals. The industry still needs to import hot-coils (semi-finished product) for fabricating flat products, since the process of hot-rolling is not established in Bangladesh. Further, particular long-products such as large shape, sheet pile for construction largely rely on import.
Cement Industry
The demand for cement has grown at 12% per annum over the last five years and the sector's market size has reached 34.12 million tons in 2019. This growth is forecasted to persist with increased urbanization and progress of megaprojects; the overall public infrastructure projects account for 35% of the country’s total cement consumption, while the remaining is consumed by the private sector. Among the existing 100 cement factories, 35 are in operation today out of which the top 10 companies currently holds 80% market share due to consolidation over the years. The cement industry is heavily dependent on import of its main material, “clinker”, on which the government maintains low import duty to decrease import of cement product. In Bangladesh, Portland composite cement, requiring less clinker compared to Ordinary Portland cement, is dominant, whereas cements characterized by water-tightness and long-term strength are yet to penetrate the market
