The demand for cement, steel, bricks and other construction materials recorded a good growth in Bangladesh during 2018 and looks to perform even better this year implementation of major infrastructure projects is accelerated, according to local media reports.
 
According to Munir Uddin Ahmed, president of the Bangladesh Association of Construction Industry (BACI), 2018 was good for the industry as there had been no sharp increase in the prices of raw materials, and prices of cement, stones, sand and bricks were more or less stable. However, steel prices rose sharply in the year compared to 2017 before stabilising.
 
Cement sales rose to about 33Mt in the year, the highest on record, from about 30Mta posted in recent years. Cement consumption grew 12 per cent in 2018, significantly ahead of eight per cent to 10 per cent average annual growth recorded in the last decade, said Md Shahidullah, vice president of the Bangladesh Cement Manufacturers Association.
 
"The demand and supply of bricks are growing at three to five per cent per year, which is satisfactory," said Mohammad Azad Hossain, an official of the Bangladesh Brick Manufacturing Owners' Association. There are about 7000 brickfields in Bangladesh, each producing 3m bricks per year.
 
The banking sector has bumped up its lending to the construction sector on the back of the government's mega project implementation spree. As of September last year, credit flow to the construction sector stood at BDT800bn (US$9.51bn), up 20.2 per cent from a year earlier, according to data from the central bank.