In a bid to make Bangladesh self-reliant on lubricants production, Lub-rref (Bangladesh) Ltd., a local producer of lube oil, will set up State-Of –The-Art Base Oil Refinery with an investment of Tk. 400 crore to increase production capacity to meet domestic demand.
Lub-rref (Bangladesh) Ltd. also wants to export after meeting the domestic demands as the global demands are rising driven by the growth of the global automotive production.
Lub-rref’s founder Managing Director Mohammed Yousuf expressed his vision of making Bangladesh self-reliant in lubricant production and exporting lube oils during a meeting a group of journalists at the factory premises in Chittagong on Saturday.
Right now, Bangladesh consumes 1.2 lakh metric ton lubricants, of which 1.04 tones are imported. Against the demands, Bangladesh produces only 0.16 tones, which means there is huge space to grow.
“Around 85% of total demand is supplied through imports and foreign brands dominate the domestic market. Lub-rref wants to break the domination of foreign brands and make Bangladesh self-reliant,” said Mohammed Yousuf.
There is an ample opportunity to replace the foreign brand by a national brand “BNO Lubricants” for the greater interest of localindustries. As a result, inlast few years the Lub-rref has put utmost efforts for introducing AdvancedTechnology and acquiring Technical Know-how, skill development and setting up in R&D Laboratory, said the founder of the company.
On top of that, for reducing foreign dependency on import of base fluid for lubricants Lub-rref is going to set up State-Of-The-Art Base Oil Refinery, the first ever of its kind in Bangladesh.
It will increase production capacity to meet local demand from domestic sources, said Yousuf. This will cost Tk.400 crore, of which about Tk.100 crore will be spent from fund to be collected through Initial Public Offering (IPO).In meeting required funds, the company will collect Tk. 150 crore from the stock markets and already got approval from the Bangladesh Securities andExchangeCommission(BSEC)to discover the cut-off price.