Steel industry suffering from 50pc slump in sales

The steel industry in Bangladesh is currently witnessing a steep drop in sales as the depreciation of taka against US dollar has hiked production costs at a time when consumers are unwilling to pay higher prices for the key construction material.

Industry insiders say sales have fallen by an average of 50 per cent to 2.5 lakh tonnes per month even though the annual demand for steel products is about 60 lakh tonnes in normal times.

The recent decline comes as a double whammy for the industry considering how sales had already slumped to about 3.6 million tonnes in 2020 due to the effects of Covid-19.