The BSRM Group reports that it is establishing a wire manufacturing operation—called BSRM Wires—in Bangledesh that will focus on making wire products that are currently imported.

Per a story at www.thedailystar.net, the company plans to spend approximately $54 million to build a plant in Chattogram. It cited a "booming" steel industry that is supported by "mega projects that the government has set in motion," and that BSRM Wires hopes to "capitalise on the impending construction boom in Bangladesh."

In the story, BSRM Group Chairman Alihussain Akberali said that the plant will make four types of wire that are currently imported. He observed that while prices for raw materials of wire are very low in the international market but the prices of the finished goods end up being high for Bangladesh due to imports. "Local manufacturing will reduce their prices," he said.

A project proposal cited a combination of galvanized wire, LRPC wire, welding electrode and carbon wire. The plant will have the capacity to annually manufacture 77,000 metric tons of wires when it opens in 2020. The plant will create some 400 jobs, bringing the BSRM’s total employment to 4,700.

The main product focus of BSRM is rebar, but it also has a plant at Nasirabad in Chattogram that manufactures wire rod. That plant, described as "the first and only company to manufacture high-strength reinforcement wires in Bangladesh," has annual capacity of 24,000 metric tons of wire rod.

The new project has seen strong support from the banking sector, led by Dhaka Bank and six other banks —Bank Asia, City, NCC, Modhumoti and Mercantile—and one financial institution, the Saudi-Bangladesh Industrial and Agricultural Investment Company. The banks have invested in the project as it would have a direct impact on the economy, said Syed Mahbubur Rahman, managing director of Dhaka Bank. "The project has good prospects," he said.