Lockpur Group, a top frozen and sea food exporter, has set up a tiles factory under a joint venture with Chinese investors in Bagerhat at Tk 950 crore.
This is the biggest ever investment in the tiles industry in Bangladesh and will aim to capture a major stake in the growing local market, according to industry-people.
The factory is named Southeast Union Ceramic Industries (SEUCIL) where Chinese investors hold 60 percent shares while Lockpur Group the remainder.
“We have started the trial operation. We hope to hit the market next month,” Abul Bashar, deputy managing director of the group, told The Daily Star yesterday.
The factory will be run on coal instead of gas used by most of the ceramics factories in the country. The factory will have an initial capacity of 25,000 square metre tiles, equivalent to 2.69 lakh square feet, per day. The capacity will rise to 40,000 square metre per day within five months, said Bashar.
S M Amzad Hossain, chairman of the factory and South Bangla Agriculture & Commerce Bank, said the group would use coal for the plant to ensure stable and safe energy supply as gas is not available in the region.
“Ceramic products produced at factories run by coal are also the best in the world. In China, most of the ceramic industries are run on coal,” he told reporters at the group's office at the Katakhali industrial area in Bagerhat on Friday.
Raw materials, including coal, will be imported from China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and India.
The factory has created jobs for 1,050 people including 50 technical staff from China. About one-third of the workers are women, said the company.
Set up in 1986, Lockpur Group has footprint in sea food, fish processing, printing, packaging, plastics, jute, ceramics, fashion, agriculture, bricks, and hospitality industries.