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Spinning Mill
A protracted and severe natural gas crisis has severely crippled Bangladesh's vital primary textile sector, impacting at least 660 textile and spinning mills nationwide and causing yarn output to plunge to roughly 30 percent of aggregate production capacity for over a month.
The systemic energy deficit began unfolding in the third week of July, forcing prominent manufacturers to partially halt operations, rely on costly diesel generators, and utilize rural electrification grids with compromised efficiency. Compounding the industry's woes, 244 mills have already remained permanently closed since 2019, according to data submitted by the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) in an official communication to the Ministry of Commerce. The association indicated that an exhaustive assessment of affected industrial units is currently underway to draft a comprehensive revitalization and policy support framework.
At the epicenter of the crisis, industrial clusters in Gazipur, Narayanganj, and Narsingdi have faced massive operational disruptions. In Gazipur Sadar upazila's Bhabanipur, Mosharraf Composite Textile, which typically generates 170 tonnes of yarn daily across five dedicated production units, saw its output reduced to just 30 percent over the past month. The mill sustained an estimated direct operational loss of around Tk 5 crore, creating severe financial strain in clearing monthly workers' wages and overhead expenses, despite gas pressure slightly recovering to 3–4 PSI on August 26 and 27.
The acute national gas shortage was triggered on July 21 when a major fire forced the shutdown of Excelerate Energy's floating LNG terminal, closely followed by supply bottlenecks at Summit's LNG terminal. Although Summit resumed full operations and Excelerate partially restarted on August 15, subsequent cargo handling complications forced another three-day suspension at Excelerate before operations resumed on August 22.
The resultant low pressure paralyzed dyeing and spinning infrastructure. In Narayanganj's Fatullah BSCIC Industrial Park, MS Dyeing Printing and Finishing was forced to completely suspend operations from August 18 due to total gas deprivation, disrupting daily dyeing capacity of 110 tonnes of fabric and creating downstream supply shortages for garment exporters. Similarly, Bhuiyan Textile and Calendar Mills in Narsingdi remained completely shuttered for 22 consecutive days, only partially operating night shifts when pressure fluctuated near zero during daylight hours. Highlighting the broader industrial distress and international buyer anxiety, BTMA Vice President and Member of Parliament Abul Kalam stated:
"Production at my own enterprise, Chaity Composite in Sonargaon, has dropped to 40 percent due to the gas crisis, mirroring the dire reality across most textile mills for the past month. The persistent gas shortfall has left our textile sector financially weakened, sparking serious concerns among foreign apparel buyers, although it is encouraging that gas supply has started to improve slightly in recent days."
While mill operators in Habiganj and Chattogram report relatively stable gas supplies and normal operations, several establishments in Sreepur of Gazipur remain restricted to 30–35 percent capacity due to pressure lingering below 2 PSI. However, select units, including Asia Composite Mills, have managed to recover 70–75 percent of their operational capacity as pressure improved to 3–8 PSI.
