Bangladesh is now one of the world's 12 largest clothing manufacturers, but the country has tradition-ally imported most of its raw fabric rather than weaving it locally. This is because local manufacturers did not have the technology to produce export-quality cloth.
But all this is about to change thanks to a $2 million loan from the fund's private sector facility which helped finance a brand-new dyeing and finishing plant at Hamid Fabrics Ltd (HFL) in Shilmondi, Narsinghdi, north of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka.
HFL II, as it is known, was installed in June 2003 and began commercial production one month later. It will enable the factory to produce more and better quality cloth for the local garment industry.
The new continuous dyeing and finishing plant employs 320 people and when fully operational will be able to process 24 million meters of high-quality fabrics a year.
It can produce cotton and cot-ton-blend fabrics with a variety of finishes such as water-repel-lent, fireproof, wrinkle-free, Teflon coated, chintz and so, forth.
In addition to the dyeing and finishing plant, the factory now also boasts a well equipped laboratory for fabric testing and washing.
HFL II is just part of an ambitious expansion programme for the group. The original factory has the capacity to produce eight million meters of fabric a year and is in the pro-cess of installing a new weaving unit with 100 high-speed looms to take this total to more than 18 million meters a year.
Apart from this huge increase in capacity, the new looms will enable the weaving mill to produce a wider range of unfinished fabrics.
Hamid is also planning to open a new garment manufacturing plant in addition to its existing ready-made garment factory, and to set up its own spinning and yarn-dyeing facilities, where yarn is dyed before it's woven.
These exciting new developments will enable the group to compete with the world's most successful textile manufacturers and contribute enormously to the national drive to increase the country's status as a global player. Bangladesh's emergence as a major supplier of ready-made garments is primarily the result of a shift away from production in high-wage developed countries such as the USA, Japan and the EU states.
High costs and increasing environmental regulations have driven factories out of these areas and encouraged them to relocate in developing nations.
Bangladesh is going all out to capitalise on this trend, striving to achieve self-sufficiency in all sectors of the industry, from spinning to weaving, and fabric processing to finished garments. Once this is accomplished there will be no need to import raw materials and technology.
Hamid Fabrics' parent company, the Mahin Group, is known as one of the Bangladeshi leaders in vertical integration, having started out making clothing then plowing earnings back into complementary industries such as the textile factory.
Hamid employs over 2, 300 people in total and besides its textile mills has factories specialising in garment manufacture, printing and packaging, as well as a transport division serving all areas of the business.
The group is also diversifying into Bangladesh's IT and Insurance sectors, even food franchise operations.
Courtesy: The OPEC fund
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