Anwar Group aims to more than double its cement sheet sales this year by tapping rising demand for roofing solutions among consumers.    

The company seeks to take cement sheet sales to Tk 250 crore in 2015 in the local market from about Tk 100 crore last year. 

Anwar Group, one of the oldest corporate giants in Bangladesh, has set up a plant in Gazaria, Munshiganj, with the annual capacity of producing 1.08 lakh tonnes of cement sheets.  But it did not disclose how much it invested for the project. 

“The plant is one of the largest single line cement sheet manufacturing units in the world,” Manwar Hossain, managing director of Anwar Group of Industries, said at the official launch of the product at the DCCI auditorium in the capital yesterday.

Five-layered Anwar cement sheet prevents heat transmission and keeps the room relatively cool in summer and warm in winter, he said. Cement sheets can be used to build poultry and kitchen sheds and in housing projects, instead of corrugated tin sheets, said Mustafizur Rahman, acting chief operating officer of Anwar Cement Sheet. 

“This cement sheet is rust-free, heat-resistant and fire-proof and lasts for decades,” he said, adding that affordable and long-lasting solution has been a long standing demand of millions of low and middle income rural people in Bangladesh.

Anwar Group's cement sheets come in lengths between 4-10 feet, with uniform width of 3.5 feet, costing between Tk 260-650 depending on the size, the company said. 

The sheets will benefit the poultry industry by reducing deaths of birds from heat stroke by up to 90 percent, said Hossain.   

Growth of birds reared in the sheds made of Anwar sheets will increase by around 30 percent, he said.

In Bangladesh, most poultry farms are open sheds or manually built non-durable structures, and a very small number is environmentally-controlled. These are mostly roofed with corrugated tin sheets, leading to bad ventilation and loss in productivity of the sector.  

The sheet is different from asbestos as it has 84 percent cement and the rest in cotton pulp, said Kanchon Saha, deputy general manager at Anwar Cement Sheet.  

Moreover, it is 30 percent cheaper than corrugated tin, he said.

“Cement sheet is a new sector for the country. Rural people, especially in the poultry industry, will immensely benefit from the product due to heat resistance quality,” said Tofail Ahmed, commerce minister.

The cement sheet will work as an import substitute, said Anwar Hossain, chairman of Anwar Group.

The company plans to export cement sheets as the consumption of the product worldwide rose to 1.69 crore tonne in 2014 from 1.61 crore tonne in 2010, he said.

Anwar Group has 28 products and services, employing more than 12,000 people directly and indirectly. The company has interests in building material, real estate, textile, jute, automobile, ICT and steel rods. Industries Secretary Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan also spoke.