Bangladesh ship breakers strike hikes plate cutting prices

The Financial Express reported that the country''s around 200 re rolling mills have suffered because of work stoppage at ship breaking yards in Chittagong. Mr Sheikh Masudul Alam a former general secretary of Bangladesh Re rolling Mills Association told the FE that "Many of our small units have suffered following the long work abstention by the ship breakers as these units are fully dependent on the ship plates."
Mr Masud also said around 50 steel factories mostly located in Dhaka and Narayanganj region have been forced to suspend operation for lack of scrap iron.
In the meantime, the prices of ship plates jumped to BDT 31000 each tonne against BDT 27000 a tonne following the work abstention by the ship breakers.
Md Bashir Ullah chairman of Bangladesh Steel Mills Association said that small factories with capacity of around 70 to 80 tonnes a day are the worst sufferers of the work abstention.
According to ship breakers, on an average, 10,000 tonnes of old ship scraps is supplied to the re-rolling mills a day.
Bangladesh has more than 250 re-rolling mills to produce around 2.5 million tonnes of steel a year.