|
|
|
|
|
What Is Bex-Maru?
Bex-Maru Polyester Ltd. is planned as the first polyester plant in Bangladesh producing high quality textile-grade polyester staple fiber (PSF) as well as polyester chips. Bex-Maru will have a production of upto 100 tons of staple fiber as well as 80 tons of polyester (PET) chips per day. Polyester Staple Fiber (PSF) is used by itself or as blends with cotton to produce yarn (and eventually, fabric) for the large export oriented ready-made garments sector in Bangladesh. PET Chips are used for producing drawn texturized filament yarn (DTY) which eventually can be woven into various fine-count fashion fabrics such as Chiffon, Georgette, Crepe and Satin.
Project Location
Bex-Maru will be situated on a riverbank site 60 km away from the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka. The river remains navigable throughout the year and with a planned permanent jetty, offers excellent opportunities for shipping of raw material and finished products. The site has well-developed road and rail connections as well. The project will have the opportunity to utilize a high-volume gas pipeline which services a number of major industries nearby.
Addressing Environmental Issues
As part of BEXlMCO's ongoing commitment to protect the environment, BEX-MARU will treat its effluents to World Bank and Bangladesh Department of Environment standards before discharge. BEX-MARU will also use the waste-heat produced by its generators to run its boilers and absorption chillers. This will reduce the pressure created on the National Electricity Grid. Several other BEXIMCO group industries already follow such sound environmental practices.
Participants In The Project
Numerous Investment Development partners from Europe and the Far East are equity participants in the project.
The Product
Bex-Maru will pioneer the production of polyester fiber and chips in Bangladesh using state-of-the-art technology and provide local spinners with quality products at their doorsteps.
Why Bex-Maru?
Bangladesh, bordered by India and Burma, is the ninth most populous country in the world. Over the years, this riverine land of 125 million people has had a very negative image as a country of 'floods, famines and misery'. As new visitors are apt to find to their pleasant surprise, the reality today is quite different. Bangladesh now offers a vibrant, dynamic economy full of opportunities.
Recent years have seen increased spending in power, energy and industrial infrastructure (ports, roads etc.) as the present high-growth industrialization scenario demands the removal of limitations imposed by these sectors. As such, Bangladesh is a ready market for industrial building material and capital goods such as gensets, boilers, compressors, heavy-duty vehicles and other industrial machinery. Among exports, ready-made garments (RMG) are a major item (US$2.55 billion out of total exports of US$3.8 billion in 1995-96) while leather goods, seafood and jute have also fared well.
As a major RMG exporter (5th and 7th largest to the US and EC markets respectively), Bangladesh has naturally gravitated to backward integration into fabrics and yarns. It is no surprise that the Government of Bangladesh has designated textiles a 'thrust' sector by slashing duties on capital goods.
In 1995-96, the RMG sector used 1.7 billion meters of fabric. Only 10% of this quantity was sourced locally. There is tremendous scope for capacity expansion in this area, not only to feed the exporting RMG sector, but also for local consumption that is again as large. As such, this sector is seeing a growing amount of new investment by local and foreign entrepreneurs. Local spinners presently import both cotton and polyester, the latter both in forms of Polyester Staple Fiber (PSF) and Partially Oriented Filament Yarn (POY). In 1994-95, the spinning mills in Bangladesh (having a total spindlage of 2.15 million units) imported 20,400 Metric tons of PSF and 10,300 MT of POY. The two POY spinners in Bangladesh also imported 10,100 MT of PET chips.
In this scenario, where close to 123 tons of Polyester are being consumed on a daily basis, and growing at the rate of 20% every year, the absence of local polymerization capacity was strongly felt by local users. Growth of the core industry such as textiles could not be based on imported products alone. Beximco, already the largest presence in domestic textiles, has decided to launch Bex-Maru Polyester Ltd., a polymerization plant having a daily production capacity of 180 tons of polymer, 100 tons of this being PSF and the rest, PET chips.
With Bex-Maru becoming a reality, Beximco will have the multiple-process capability to produce a tailored world-class apparel (such as a shirt) all the way from imported chemicals such as Pure Terephthalic Acid (PTA) and Mono Ethylene Glycol (MEG). Beximco has become a quality-leader in every category of this value-addition chain as well. The ultimate winners will be the numerous local spinning units, who will be able to economically source world class PSF and POY in a flexible manner. They can forego all logistics and customs hassles and will be able to use capital hitherto tied up in importing Polyester. This will open the way to a self-sufficient, regionally competitive textiles sector in Bangladesh.