Kazi Azizul Islam
With severe load-shedding of electricity continuing in the city and elsewhere, the businesses dealing with power back-up devices see hectic business in the upcoming summer with sales peaking since early March.
In last year around 60,000 units of instant power supply or IPS and 15,000 small generators were sold. Industry people expect this year the sales of IPS to grow by more than 20 per cent and that of generators to post a double-digit growth, fetching nearly Tk 300 crore in proceeds.
‘Even if the power supply situation this year remains like that in last year, we are almost sure of at least 20 per cent growth in IPS sales,’ said Niaz Rahim, managing director of the Rahimafrooz Group.
Rahimafrooz commands around 40 per cent of the local market of IPS, with Navana and Singer being the next two major players. Around 10 other local and imported brands are also available on the market but their market share is very small.
A marketing official at Singer Bangladesh Limited told New Age they are getting satisfactory demand calls for IPS units from their outlets across the country.
‘We are already having good sales now and guess the sales will shoot up in the summer,’ he added.
‘The trend of sales this season is quite good,’ said Parvez Saiful Islam, chief executive at Rahimafrooz’s IPS wing. Islam said more than two-thirds of the IPS units are sold to domestic users, adding the units having 500 watt capacity and less are the most in demand.
Rahimafrooz however has some mega IPS units that can power air-conditioners and are mainly bought by offices.
In case of generators, however, commercial establishments, especially shops and offices, are the major buyers, said Ziauddin Abu Nasser, a senior executive at HS Enterprise, which commands the local market with Honda generators.
Imported from Japan, the capacities of Honda generators range between 450VA and 5.5KVA and are priced between Tk 22,000 and Tk 85,000.
Despite being relatively more expensive than other brands, Honda generators commanded nearly 20 per cent of Bangladesh market last year.
Nurul Abser, director of Electromart, says a significant portion of shops and offices in Dhaka and other major cities have already purchased at least one generator each in the meantime.
‘But the terrible power supply situation will keep the sales of generators growing,’ he observed.
Elatromart, which commands the local market of television sets by Konka — a made-in-China brand, imports and sales Lifan brand generators priced between Tk 12,000 and Tk 50,000.
In the recent weeks, load-shedding of power has become very frequent in Dhaka and elsewhere, leaving the people in dark for five to 10 times a day and for at least four hours.
Courtesy of www.newagebd.com
