Bangladesh Gas Supply To Industrial Units Improves: BTMA Confirms Recovery

🔥 Bangladesh's textile millers have confirmed that gas supply to industrial units has improved since the evening of September 15, following Prime Minister Tarique Rahman's assurance that the situation would normalise after LNG cargo arrivals. The Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), through a statement, thanked the prime minister for the rise in gas supply, marking a meaningful turning point in the gas supply crisis that has constrained industrial production for weeks.

📊 In a board meeting held at Gulshan Club in Dhaka, the millers said a positive environment had been restored in the mills as their production capacity increased with higher gas pressure. The millers are hopeful of timely supply of raw materials such as fabrics to garment exporters as they can resume production at high volume with the increased supply of gas since Tuesday evening. The recovery — if sustained — would ease the supply chain pressure on Bangladesh's RMG sector, which depends on domestic textile mills for fabric inputs.

📜 PM's Assurance And LNG Cargo Arrival

Earlier, the prime minister, in a meeting with the leaders of top trade bodies on September 14, assured them that the gas supply situation would improve from the following evening as some cargoes of liquefied natural gas had arrived in the country. The PM's assurance — combined with the actual LNG cargo arrivals — translated into measurable supply improvement within 24 hours, demonstrating that the gas supply crisis was primarily a procurement and logistics issue rather than an infrastructure capacity constraint.

• 📅 PM meeting with trade bodies: September 14
• 📅 Gas supply improvement began: September 15 evening
• 🏛 BTMA board meeting venue: Gulshan Club, Dhaka
• 📜 BTMA President: Showkat Aziz Russell
• 📊 Cause: LNG cargo arrivals
• 📜 Yarn import reform: 10-30 count under bank guarantee (vs zero-duty bond)

👕 Yarn Bond Facility Reform Expected

The textile millers also said it is expected that the import of yarn of 10 to 30 count will be allowed under the bank guarantee instead of the zero-duty import facility under the bond, the statement read. They also sought cooperation to stop the abuse of bond facilities for importing yarn and suggested taking legal action against traders who are involved in the abuse of bond facilities for importing yarn and damaging the local primary textile sector.

The yarn bond facility reform addresses a long-standing complaint from domestic textile millers — that the zero-duty bond facility for yarn imports was being abused by traders who diverted imported yarn into the domestic market rather than using it exclusively for export-oriented production. The proposed shift from zero-duty bond to bank guarantee would tighten oversight by requiring financial collateral, making it more difficult to abuse the facility for domestic market sales.

💰 Loan Rescheduling And Restructuring Demands

The millers also urged the government to allow them bank loan rescheduling and refinancing facilities and ease loan restructuring for the primary textile sector. The loan restructuring request reflects the accumulated financial stress in the primary textile sector — mills that were unable to operate at full capacity during the gas supply crisis have been burning cash on fixed costs (depreciation, interest, salaries) without generating corresponding revenue. Without loan restructuring, many mills would face default on their bank obligations, potentially triggering a cascade of NPL classifications in the textile lending portfolio.

📜 BTMA President's Assessment

BTMA President Showkat Aziz Russell said since the gas supply has increased, the millers will be able to supply raw materials to garment exporters on time, production capacity will improve, and they can retain the employment of a large number of workers. The reference to employment retention is significant — the gas supply crisis had threatened to trigger layoffs in the textile sector, which would have compounded the economic challenges facing Bangladesh's industrial workforce.

🌏 Strategic Context: Textile Sector's Role In RMG Supply Chain

For Bangladesh's RMG sector, the gas supply recovery in textile mills carries direct supply chain implications. Domestic textile mills supply approximately 85-90% of the knit fabric used by Bangladesh's knitwear exporters — meaning that any disruption to textile mill operations immediately constrains the RMG sector's ability to meet export delivery schedules. The gas supply improvement would allow textile mills to resume normal fabric production, supporting the RMG sector's export commitments during the critical autumn production season.

The coming weeks will reveal whether the gas supply recovery can be sustained — or whether the pattern of improvement followed by renewed disruption (as occurred with the August 19 Excelerate FSRU shutdown) will repeat. For the textile sector's financial health, sustained gas supply is essential to generate the revenue needed to service bank loans and avoid the NPL cascade that the millers are seeking to prevent through the loan restructuring request.