 "Star Cement eyes Bangladesh market for exports")
On Saturday, the company dispatched its first barge of clinker to Bangladesh via riverine route. With this, the company also achieved the feat of being the first cement manufacturing company of India to export clinker to Bangladesh via waterway.
Jyoti Swaroop Agarwal, president (sales and marketing) of Star Cement, said in the recent past a series of bilateral discussion between both the Indian and Bangladesh governments had paved the way to utilise the potential river route, which according to him was cost effective.
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Exporting clinker to Bangladesh via river route would give an edge to Star Cement to encounter the stiff competition it was likely to face from manufacturers of South-East Asian countries, added Agarwal.
South-East Asian countries like Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Korea, presently meet around 99 per cent of the total clinker requirement of Bangladesh.
As a pilot project, Star Cement had started clinker export to Bangladesh last year via roadway, however as that proved not to be cost effective; the company had to switch to river route now. "We believe that this mode of logistics will definitely be commercially more viable than ever", Agarwal said.
He also added that Star Cement had already tied up with many leading cement manufacturers of Bangladesh to meet their clinker requirements over a long term and many more such deals were in pipeline.The company has chosen a port in Karimganj, in south Assam, to export clinkers to Dhaka.
The new route is expected to pave way for export of other items too to Bangladesh from North-East India. Star Cement, which has more than 20 per cent market share in the North-Eastern market, had recently commissioned two new "state-of-the-art" cement plants at Jaintia Hills Meghalaya and another near Guwahati.