Quasem Industries starts quartz production with export potential

Quasem Industries – the manufacturer of SUNLITE batteries – has finally gone into the production of artificial quartz one year behind the schedule with export potential, and also for the local market.

According to the company, Quasem Industries started the production on 20 June as the first company in Bangladesh to have manufactured quartz – a surface covering material.

With the technological advancement, the business of its dry cell batteries – the main products of Quasem Industries – has been declining day by day.

As a result, it decided in 2020 to establish an artificial quartz product manufacturing unit at its factory premises in Tangail as part of the portfolio diversification.

The unit has been built in collaboration with Sunstone International LLC, US.

The cost was estimated at Tk92 crore. Tk30 crore will come from the company's own fund, and Tk29.36 crore from banks, while Tk29 crore will be borrowed from the market as suppliers' credit.

The commercial production of the new unit of the company got delayed by one year due to disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Originally, the project was expected to end by June 2021.

Darul Awam Tuhin, company secretary of Quasem Industries, told The Business Standard, "The new project has been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic."

Revenue and profit will be almost double

Quasem Industries has built its artificial quartz unit for manufacturing 100% export-oriented products with the provision for local sales also.

According to its disclosure, the revenue and profit of the company will almost double after the completion of the new project.

In fiscal 2020-21, the revenue of the company declined to Tk116.17 crore, and profit to Tk9.16 crore.

As per the target of the company, the sales of new products to be produced in the new manufacturing unit will generate Tk223.56 crore in revenue in the first year, and net profit will be Tk17.45 crore.

In a stock exchange filing, the company said it has successfully completed the final trial operation of the artificial quartz product manufacturing unit on 16 June 2022.

Quasem Dry Cell Company, which obtained its International Standards Organisation (ISO) certification in 1980, got listed on the stock market in 1988 as a blue chip company.

After conducting business for over two decades, to bring about diversification in its products, Quasem Dry Cell changed its name to Quasem Industries Limited in 2017.