Bangladesh cement export revenue fall

Bangladesh's cement industry has earned export revenue of US$7.26m in the last fiscal year (July 2020-June 2021), compared to US$9.14m in the year-ago period, a fall of 20.6 per cent YoY. The figure also includes a minor amount of salt, stone and related products, according to the Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data. 

Bangladesh exports 90 per cent of its cement to India. An increase in local consumption and high cost of exports attributed to lesser export, a research house reported.

The export value for cement decreased by 27.4 per cent, underperforming compared with the government target set for the period due to an increase in local consumption and continued measures to stop COVID-19 spreading. The government had set an advanced export target for the cement industry at US$10m for FY20-21 (July 2020-June 2021), compared to US$9.14m for the previous fiscal year.

However, the country's total export earnings from the rest of the merchandise shipments witnessed a 15.10 per cent growth in the 12MFY20-21. Aggregate export earnings stood at US$38.75bn, against US$36.67bn in the corresponding period of the last fiscal, according to the EPB data. The government had set an export-earning target of US$41bn from goods in the FY20-21. Export earnings in the previous fiscal year totalled US$33.67bn.