Bangladesh-based Bashundhara Group is planning to invest $500mn to build a 1.3mn mt per annum electric arc furnace (EAF) steel mill in the country’s Mirsarai economic zone, according to media reports. The plant will be set up within two years.
In mid-August, the company had said that it plans to set up three new enterprises in the Mirsarai region. Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) had leased a 500-acre plot in Mirsarai to Bashundhara Pre-fabricated Building Manufacturing Industries, Bashundhara Multi Steel Industries, and Bashundhara Chemical Industries. The company had secured an $82.6mn syndicated term loan for funding its Bashundhara Industrial Complex Project in mid-September.
The company is new to the steel industry but wants to take advantage of the growing steel sector in Bangladesh. Domestic demand is increasing rapidly due to several mega infrastructure development projects. Bashundhara owns power plants, cement plants, two paper mills, and is active in shipping, logistics, and some food and beverage sectors.
Bangladesh is a growing ferrous scrap export destination. In January-May, the country was the fifth-largest buyer of ferrous scrap exported from the US and purchased 603,000mt of ferrous scrap.