A serious gas shortage has caused Mithela Textile Industries, a weaving, dying and printing firm in Araihazar, Narayanganj, to witness a decrease in production below 30 per cent for the previous month.
However, due to the gas issue, Intimate Spinning Mills, another textile factory in Narayanganj, is on the verge of closing while Mithela Textile continues to operate at a very reduced capacity.
Gas shortages have long plagued companies dependent on gas, but for the last three weeks, things have gotten much worse as a result of damage caused by Cyclone Remal, which struck the Bay of Bengal’s coastal districts on 27th May and damaged one of the two floating LNG terminals. It might not be back in service until mid-July while the damaged unit is being repaired.
Entrepreneurs say, that representatives of Petrobangla, the state-owned gas firm in charge of the delivery of natural gas, have told them that fixing the problem will likely take an additional month and a half.
The gas problem is causing serious production disruptions for some 700 textile factories that are members of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), according to textile millers. The permitted gas pressure in the facilities should be between 10 and 15 PSI (pounds per square inch), but for the past month, it has been between 0 and 2 PSI.
