Gas shutdown halts production at 171 Habiganj factories

Habiganj Correspondent : A severe gas shortage has brought industrial production across Habiganj to a complete halt, with gas supplies to all 171 factories in the district suspended since Wednesday, August 13, leaving more than 150,000 workers idle and putting export orders worth billions of taka at risk.

The factories had already been receiving severely reduced gas supplies for nearly three weeks. But from Wednesday, the supply was completely cut off, forcing factories to shut down their production units.

Factory owners and officials say the disruption is causing losses of more than Tk 1,000 crore a day, much of it linked to export-oriented industries. Several companies have already seen foreign orders cancelled or are facing the prospect of losing buyers because they cannot meet shipment deadlines.

Gas authorities, however, say supplies to industries had to be suspended because gas allocation to power plants was increased to maintain electricity generation amid the nationwide gas shortage.

‘Everyone is sitting idle’

Abul Hossain, general manager (engineering) of Jamuna Industrial Park, told that the park has six factories, producing tyres, yarn, fabrics, paper and poly silk, alongside a power plant.

“Except for the tyre and power plants, all our units are fully export-oriented,” he said.

Around 12,000 workers, officers and employees work at the industrial park, all of whom are currently idle, he said.

The factories have an approved daily gas demand of 13.6 million cubic feet (mmcf), but Jalalabad Gas had been supplying only around 3 mmcf for some time—far below what was needed to sustain production.

“Even that was barely enough to keep production running. Now gas supply has been completely stopped since midnight on Wednesday,” Abul Hossain said.

Export orders at risk

At Badsha Pioneer, gas supplies had already fallen to roughly one-third or one-quarter of the company’s daily requirement before being completely cut off from Wednesday afternoon.

Khairul Alam, the company’s general manager (administration), said the company requires gas equivalent to 30 megawatts a day and employs around 16,000 workers, officers and employees.

“Everyone is now sitting idle. The company is losing around Tk 5 crore every day,” he said.

The company operates spinning, textile and garment units and is fully export-oriented. Alam said the disruption had put its foreign orders at risk.

“If we cannot ship the products on time, the orders will be cancelled,” he said, urging the authorities to restore gas supplies immediately.

Production of 38,000 tonnes of yarn halted

At SM Spinning, around 13,500 workers, officers and employees have been left without work following the gas shutdown.

General Manager Abul Bashar said the factory’s gas supply was suspended at around 3:45pm on Wednesday, bringing its entire production to a halt.

The factory normally produces around 38,000 metric tonnes of yarn a day, with daily losses estimated at $121,600, or roughly Tk 1.5 crore.

“Our entire production is export-oriented. With production stopped, we cannot make shipments on time, and orders are being cancelled. There is no question of taking new orders,” Bashar said.

Tk 200cr daily loss at Sayham Group

The situation is even more severe at Sayham Group, where gas supplies had been irregular since July 22 before being completely suspended at around 11:30am on Wednesday.

Engineer Rezaul Haque, the group’s general manager, said the company has around 27,000 workers, officers and employees, all of whom are now idle.

The company, which is fully export-oriented, has a daily gas requirement of 7 million cubic metres, but is currently receiving nothing.

“We cannot even generate electricity. There is no electricity in a single room. We have no PDB or rural electricity connection and generate our own power,” he said.

Rezaul estimated the company’s daily losses at around Tk 200 crore.

“All foreign orders have been cancelled. Taking new orders is out of the question,” he said.

He added that the gas authorities had not given the company a definite timeframe for restoring supplies.

“We asked them to tell us how long it would take. We would wait that long. But they cannot give us any clear answer,” he said.

35,000 workers idle at Habiganj Industrial Park (PRAN-RFL Group)

The Habiganj Industrial Park, operated by PRAN-RFL Group, has around 35,000 workers, officers and employees.

General Manager Dipak Kumar Deb said gas problems had persisted for some time, but the supply was completely cut off at around 6pm on Wednesday.

“Gas supply is now zero. Production in all the factories has completely stopped, and everyone is sitting idle,” he said.

At Square Denim, around 3,000 workers have also been left without work after gas supplies were cut off at around 3pm on Wednesday.

General Manager Abdul Majed said the factory requires gas equivalent to around 20 megawatts a day and is fully export-oriented.

“We have orders from buyers but cannot produce the goods. If we cannot ship on time, our reputation will suffer. Eventually, buyers may turn away from us,” he warned.

He said prolonged disruption could put one of Bangladesh’s most important sources of foreign exchange earnings at risk.

Captive power generation also disrupted

According to officials and factory representatives, Habiganj has 171 industrial companies, ranging from small to large enterprises. More than 50 are fully export-oriented, while others have both domestic and export markets.

Most of the export-oriented factories rely on captive power plants to generate their own electricity rather than using electricity supplied by the Rural Electrification Board or the Power Development Board.

As a result, the gas shutdown has not only halted factory production but also disrupted their ability to generate electricity.

Industry officials said they had never faced a gas crisis of this scale before.

The crisis began abruptly in mid-July. Initially, factories received limited supplies—sometimes only one-third or one-quarter of their requirements. But the complete shutdown has pushed the industries into an unprecedented crisis.

No clear explanation for shutdown

Sources said Jalalabad Gas authorities had sent several letters to industrial users in recent days informing them about reductions or interruptions in gas supplies.

However, the letters reportedly did not clearly explain why supplies were being reduced or suspended, leaving factory officials uncertain about how long the crisis would continue.

Mohammad Ruhul Karim Chowdhury, deputy general manager of Jalalabad Gas T&D System Ltd, told that the gas shortage was a national problem that had emerged in the final week of July.

“We have also published a notice in newspapers regarding the issue,” he said.

According to him, the main reason for the shortage is the increased allocation of gas to power plants to maintain electricity generation.

He said the situation could improve within the next three to four days.

For Habiganj’s industries, however, every day of shutdown is translating into mounting losses, idle workers and growing uncertainty over export orders. With no gas currently reaching the factories, industry officials fear that a prolonged disruption could damage both production and Bangladesh’s export earnings.