Meghna’s plan to invest Tk 4,000cr ready for action

Meghna Group of Industries (MGI), a leading Bangladeshi business group, is set to flag off nine industrial units at its economic zone in Narayanganj tomorrow in a bid to meet the country's growing demand for consumer products and industrial raw materials.

MGI invested about Tk 4,000 crore to set up the manufacturing facilities, where 8,400 workers will be directly employed. After meeting the local demand, the group also intends to export the different products manufactured at the factories.

The units that will be formally inaugurated tomorrow are: Meghna Sugar Refinery, Sonargaon Seeds Crushing Mills, Meghna Ball Pen and Accessories MFG, Meghna Noodles and Biscuit Factory, Sonargaon Printing and Packaging Industries, Fresh Welding Electrodes and Wire, Meghna Fresh LPG, Sonargaon Ship Builders and Dockyard, and a second unit of Fresh Cement. 

In a first for the country, liquid sugar is being produced alongside its granulated version at the Meghna Sugar Refinery by adopting sophisticated automatic machinery from Germany, France, China and India.

With a production capacity of 3,500 tonnes per day, the refinery provided 1,000 opportunities for direct employment.

The sugar could also be exported to countries such as Nepal and Bhutan after local demand is met, said a senior official of MGI requesting anonymity.

The Sonargaon Seeds Crushing Mills will churn out liquid and powder lecithin, which are used for baking, pharmaceutical products and livestock feed. Technology from Germany, Sweden, Brazil, Italy, China, Switzerland, the US and Thailand would be used at the plant.

MGI set up the factory, which has a production capacity of 5,500 tonnes and employs 600 people, to meet the country's demand for nutrient-rich food.

Lecithin is a fat that is essential in the cells of the body. It can be found in many food items, including soybeans and egg yolks.

Similar to its plans for the sugar refinery, MGI intends to export the ingredients to South Asian countries, Europe, India, and China after meeting local demand.

Meghna Ball Pen and Accessories, which employs 300 individuals, would manufacture about 8 lakh ball pens a day.

The Meghna Noodles and Biscuit factory will guzzle out 40,000 tonnes of biscuits, 1,900 tonnes of cake, 20,000 tonnes of noodles, 4,000 tonnes of wafer, 8,000 tonnes of chocolate, 12,000 tonnes of Bombay mix, 6,500 tonnes of candy and 4,000 tonnes of various other snacks per annum.

Currently, there are 4,000 people working at the factory.

MGI set up the factory with Chinese, Japanese and European technology.

Meanwhile, the Sonargaon Printing and Packaging Industries was set up to meet the demand for the printing and packaging materials required by all plants under MGI. The factory uses Chinese and Indian technology to manufacture 442,000 carton packing materials per day and employs about 450 people.

Some 1,000 tonnes of woven system welding electrodes and 400 tonnes of flux-cored arc welding are made at the MGI's Fresh Welding Electrodes and Wire factory, which generated 100 jobs.

Meghna Fresh LGP, one of the biggest industries under MGI, processes 300 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas using European equipment daily.

At present, there are 350 people working at the factory, where it takes 4,000 12kg cylinders to store the mixture of hydrocarbon gases. Besides, there is also a 10,000 tonne capacity storage warehouse for the product.

The Ship Builders and Dock Yard, has a yearly capacity to manufacture 5,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT) oil tankers, cargo ships, bulk ships, gas ships and container ships. The factory features both Chinese and European technology.

The second manufacturing unit of the Fresh Cement Industry, which has a production capacity of 10,000 tonnes of cement per day, will also be inaugurated. The company has created employment opportunity for about 1,000.

The factory was set up to meet the growing local demand and also to export to northeast India, the MGI official added.