Conglomerate in Bangladesh plans new EAF capacity

The Dhaka, Bangladesh-based Bashundhara Group is reportedly carrying out plans to invest $500 million to build a 1.3 million metric tons per year electric arc furnace (EAF) steel mill in Mirsarai, Bangladesh.

The Dhaka-based Daily Star website reported in mid-August that Bashundhara was planning “three new enterprises” in the Mirsarai economic zone. At that time, Paban Chowdhury, executive chair of the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA), said a 500-acre plot in Mirsarai had been leased to Bashundhara Pre-fabricated Building Manufacturing Industries, Bashundhara Multi Steel Industries and Bashundhara Chemical Industries.

The Bashundhara Group “wants to grab a greater share of the growing steel sector [as] domestic demand continues to increase rapidly thanks to the various mega projects and infrastructure development activities being implemented across Bangladesh,” the Daily Star reported at that time.

The company would be new to the steel sector. It currently operates power plants, produces cement operates two paper mills and is active in shipping, logistics and some food and beverage sectors.

In mid-September Bashundhara Group announced it had secured an $82.6 million syndicated term loan to help fund its Bashundhara Industrial Complex Ltd. project.

Now, FastmarketsAMM has reported that the steelmaking portion of the project will entail a $500 investment to build a 1.3-milion-tons-per-year EAF mill in Mirsarai. A source told the publication the plant would likely take about two years to build.

Earlier this year at the Material Recycling Association of India (MRAI) conference, Bangladesh was cited as a growing ferrous scrap export destination. At a SteelMint event in 2019, a presenter from Bangladesh-based steelmaker BSRM said United States was the largest ferrous scrap supplier to Bangladesh at that time, followed by the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia and Singapore.

In the first five months of 2020, Bangladesh was the fifth largest buyer of ferrous scrap exported from the U.S., purchasing 603,000 metric tons. It was behind only Turkey (1.55 million metric tons), Mexico (871,000), Malaysia (774,000) and Taiwan (707,000).

Elsewhere on the Indian subcontinent, a current EAF steelmaker in Pakistan has announced an intended initial public offering, while a Delhi-based consultant has predicted India’s need for ferrous scrap will “easily double” in the next 10 to 12 years.