The ongoing gas shortage is severely disrupting industrial production in Bangladesh, creating significant challenges for manufacturers in meeting production schedules and delivering shipments to international buyers on time. The crisis is particularly affecting energy-intensive textile and apparel units, where uninterrupted gas supply is essential for captive power generation and production processes.
The situation is creating three major risks for industries and exporters:
Major Production and Shipment Delays
Factory shutdowns: Low gas pressure is disrupting captive power generation, forcing critical production units such as dyeing, washing and spinning to remain shut for hours.
Missed lead times: Production interruptions are making it increasingly difficult for manufacturers to complete orders within agreed production schedules and shipment cut-off dates.
Rising air freight costs: To avoid order cancellations and maintain buyer commitments, manufacturers are sometimes forced to shift shipments from sea freight to costly air freight. This significantly increases logistics expenses and can wipe out a substantial portion of the order’s profit margin.
Quality Risks and Financial Losses
Quality deterioration: Sudden drops in gas pressure during dyeing and fabric processing can disrupt production conditions, resulting in shade variation, processing defects and higher rejection rates.
Working capital pressure: Delayed production and shipments can disrupt the expected cash flow cycle. Delays in export realization and banking settlements can tie up working capital, leaving manufacturers with limited funds to procure raw materials for subsequent orders.
Deteriorating Buyer Relationships.
Failure to meet commitments: Repeated shipment delays can reduce buyers’ confidence in a factory’s reliability and delivery performance.
Order cancellations and financial penalties: International brands operate according to strict seasonal calendars, including Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter collections. Delayed shipments can force buyers to cancel orders, demand discounts or impose financial penalties.
Risk of losing future business: If the gas crisis continues for an extended period, international buyers may shift future orders to competing sourcing destinations where energy supply is more stable and predictable.
The prolonged gas shortage therefore represents not only an operational challenge but also a serious threat to Bangladesh’s export competitiveness. Ensuring a stable and predictable energy supply is critical to maintaining production continuity, meeting international delivery commitments, protecting product quality and retaining the confidence of global buyers.
