The history of Cement Industry of Bangladesh is not as old as other countries have a deep-rooted legacy of construction materials. The attempt to produce cement in Bangladesh dates back to 1941 when the first Cement Factory called “Chattak Cement Factory Ltd” (formerly known as Assam Bengal Cement Company Limited) was established in Sylhet, north-eastern part of the country, during the regime of British India.

After the emergence of Bangladesh, the second factory called “Chittagong Cement Clinker and Grinding Factory Ltd” (Currently being operated by Heidelberg Cement) took place in 1973 in Chittagong. After that, no such factory came in until early nineties. Although the demand was growing in a quicker manner during the period covering early seventies to early nineties, the requirement had been fulfilled through import mainly from countries like Indonesia, China, Malaysia, and India. It is relevant to add here that Bangladesh lacks limestone, the basic raw material of Cement and resultantly this sector had failed to draw the attention of investors for a long time. However, in the early nineties, some enthusiastic entrepreneurs attempted into setting up cement plants which opened a new era in this sector.

In nineties manufacturers entered into the industry mainly include Confidence Cement Ltd, Hyundai Cement Bangladesh Ltd, Meghna Cement Mills Ltd of Basundhara Group, Ahad Cement Factory Limited, Aramit Cement Limited, Mongla Cement Factory Ltd of Sena Kalyan Sangstha, Diamond Cement Limited, Lafarge Surma Cement Ltd and Eastern Cement Ltd- to name a few. In twenties a good number of large, medium and small companies such as Shah Cement Ltd, M I Cement Factory Ltd (Crown Cement), Unique Cement Industries Ltd of Meghna Group of Industry, Premier Cement Ltd, Seven Circle (Bangladesh) Ltd, Heidelberg Cement Bangladesh Ltd, Holcim (Bangladesh) Ltd, Royal Cement Ltd and Cemex Cement Bangladesh Ltd and the list goes on stepped into the industry.

The growing infrastructure requirement and appetite for individual house building gave positive stimulus to the infant industry. The following decades saw increase in number of plants, installed capacity and production. This period can thus be called the Nascent Stage of Bangladesh Cement Industry. Meanwhile, in mid nineties, the then Cement manufacturers realized the need for a common platform to address various issues related to different government agencies, promote the infant industry in various ways. This realization turned into the emergence of BCMA (Bangladesh Cement Manufacturers Association). The main objective of BCMA is to assist its members with all possible supports especially related to liaison with government agencies, provide information to conduct research and act upon value-added approaches for the greater interest of the nation and industry. With due respect, BCMA takes the privilege to recall the contribution and able leadership of founder president, Mr. Ahmed Akbar Sobhan Shah Alam, Chairman Basundhara Group; immediate past President Mr. Mostafa Kamal, Chairman, Meghna Group of Industries; and incumbent President Mr. Alamgir Kabir, Vice Chairman, Crown Cement Group. Seeing this promising sector, some multinationals (MNCs) with international reputation started to enter into Bangladesh. The first MNC Cement Factory called “Hyundai Cement (Bangladesh) Ltd” started its operation in mid-nineties. Following the footsteps of Hyundai Cement, the large MNCs called Heidelberg, Lafarge, Holcim, Cemex, Teiheiyo, and Ultratech came in by phases. With this timely attempt of promising industrialists, not only the dependency on import lowered in the following years but also the growth of this sector has been shooting up rapidly. For example in 11 years in the recent past say during the period from 2008 to 2018, it got quadrupled. As many as 76 cement manufacturing companies were registered, but 42 large, medium and small scale companies are currently in operation. Out of 42 companies, seven are listed with the share market. Currently, these 42 plants have a total yearly effective capacity of about 58 million tons against the demand of approximate 31 million tons. Among the existing 42 market players, the cement industry is dominated by only ten companies including two multinationals, holding around 75% of the total market share. Once the market was dominated by foreign companies which are now facing intense competition with the local ones. Two of the global cement groups — UAE-based Emirates Cement and Mexico-based Cemex — winded up their Bangladesh operations failing to penetrate the market.

The major Cement grinding are located mainly at 5 zones in the country and they are Mukterpur, Munshiganj on the bank of the river Dhaleshwari; Narayanganj on the bank of the river Shitalakkhya; Meghnaghat on the bank of the river Meghna, Chittagong, and Mongla. It may also be noted that except two clinkerization plants located at Chattak, Sunamganj; all are grinding plants.

Meantime, in the early twenties, a new opportunity opened up with the entry of the export market, especially to northeast India. Although volume-wise this segment is not that significant, it has brought an extra surge to the industry.

Within a short span of time, the Cement Industry of Bangladesh has made various strides in respect of innovation of product, modernization of production method and distribution & marketing process. Till 2001, only one type of cement was available in Bangladesh which is called “Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC)”. From mid-2001, various types of cement became available in Bangladesh which helped the cement industry provide differentiated and improved products to customers. The cement which has widely been used from 2001 is known as “Portland Composite Cement (PCC)”. At present, the ratio of production of PCC and OPC is around 95:5.

In the production method, traditionally the use of ball mill/ tube mill has been in existence in producing cement at grinding stations since the beginning. Subsequently, in early 2000 few big players begun to use Polycom technology in Cement grinding line. The technology is a high-pressure grinding mill to produce cement. Shortly after the introduction of the Polycom system, another system called VRM (Vertical Roller Mill) technology had grabbed the attention of big giants in the field. The VRM is a vertically placed large sized machine which is equipped with some rollers used for grinding raw material. It also consists of one table which is rotated by an electrical motor and raw materials are fed on the table. It may be mentioned that Bangladesh’s Shah Cement Industries Ltd has set a Guinness World Record for commissioning the world’s largest Vertical Roller Cement Mill.

Earlier only bagged cement, popularly known as 50 KGs bag, used to be distributed throughout the country; at a later stage, the big Cement makers introduced bulk cement in parallel with bag Cement, which is now gaining popularity day by day. Besides, during last one and half decades, the Cement Industry of Bangladesh is contributing largely to advertisement industry, event management companies, electronic media and print media too though various innovative advertisement tools, customer-centric activation, and knowledge sharing sessions and so on.

It is hoped that the construction sector in general and Cement sector in particular will grow further riding on Bangladesh's dense population, enhancing life expectancy rate, rapid construction of economic zones, sizeable investments in the socio-economic development of mainly common people, booming agriculture, and the thriving garment sector. Bangladesh is investing heavily in infrastructure development, especially in power generation, highways, bridges, buildings, and telecom. So, cement, steel, and power will certainly play a crucial role in achieving the government's vision to become a middle-income country by 2021 and the developed country by 2041.

At present, per capita cement consumption in Bangladesh is about 182 kg, but it will not stay there for too long. We foresee a Cement growth of 8% in 2019 and after that, it may continue with 10 % growth for the next five years. Whereas population growth is expected 1 to 1.2% during these periods. We hope per capita consumption of cement will touch the level of 250 kg in the near future say by 2022.

Despite all the above inspiring indicators, some challenges are ahead of the Cement Industry of Bangladesh. The market has already been oversaturated and yet the big players are on an expansion spree. We predict existing overcapacity will get further deteriorated with the implementation of expansion projects by large players in the next 2/3 years. However, in order to be able to utilize this surplus capacity, the industry may require 5 to 7 years from now.