Bangladesh' ceramic tile industry forges ahead

Tile production in Bangladesh has grown by 150% in the space of just 5 years, reaching 119 million sq.m in 2018. DBL Ceramics stands among the local largest ceramic tile producers.

Bangladesh is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies with GDP growth that has remained consistently above 7% for several years.

Thanks to a series of reforms, greater political stability and a focus on development, the country has evolved from a basic economy to one focused on industrial production and technology. According to the London-based Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), in 2019 the country climbed from 43rd to 41st place in the rankings of the world’s largest economies and may easily reach 24th position by 2032. The increase in household disposable income together with annual population growth of around 1% has also revived the construction sector, which in turn has given a big boost to the development of the local ceramic industry.

New companies have been set up (there are now 28) and tile production has grown by 150% in the space of just 5 years, reaching 119 million sq.m in 2018, an increase of 19% on 2017 and 40% on 2016. One of the largest ceramic tile producers in Bangladesh is DBL Ceramics, a company set up in 2016 by DBL Group, an industrial concern with operations spanning a range of sectors (it controls 24 companies with more than 36,000 employees) and a turnover of more than US $600 million in 2018-2019.

“According to the local producers, the Bangladesh ceramic tile market may soon reach 200 million sq.m, while analysts are forecasting consumption growth for the next twenty years”, M. A. Jabbar, Managing Director of DBL Ceramics, said. Tile imports grew very little in the last five years and in 2018 actually dropped to around 8-9 million sq.m, almost all from China.

“The local industry will certainly continue to grow through new investments made by both local and foreign investors, who are in fact already present in the sector”, Jabbar added. DBL Ceramics owns a fully-automated factory equipped with state-of-the-art technology supplied by top Italian brands, including Sacmi, System Ceramics, Tecnoferrari, Air Power and Cami. The company, which manufactures a full range of floor and wall tiles and technical, polished and glazed porcelain in a wide variety of decorations using HD printing and sophisticated aesthetic effects, is also about to conclude the third phase of expansion, in order to produce double charge tiles.

Read the interview with M. A. Jabbar in Ceramic World Review 134.