Becharam Dewri's metal market: Where dust is also a sellable product
The market has been thriving for more than 50 years and has around 250 shops, involving around 1,500 people directly in the business
The sound of metals clanking and clashing fills the air in the alleys of the metal market in Becharam Dewri. Workers load and unload heavy sacks from mini trucks; their clothes smudged with rust.
Some unpack the goods, which are metal objects of different shapes and sizes. Meanwhile, a few of them sort through the dust and pick out some of them. Interestingly, these dusts also have a price.
"In our business, dust is also a sellable item. For example, 10kg of dust would cost Tk5,000-Tk7,000 because it has particles of metal such as silver, copper, brass, aluminium or zinc," said Mohammad Jasim Uddin, a partner owner of Shifat Metal Store.
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Although Old Dhaka is known as one of the country's major wholesale hubs for finished products, the market for scrap metals has been thriving in Becharam Dewri for more than 50 years.
In the 1960s, it emerged with the supply of dumped electronics from industrial units and households. The market expanded beyond the Becharam Dewri area when shipbreaking began after Bangladesh's independence, recalled some of the old businessmen.
According to the organisers of Metal Samabay Samity (a cooperative of scrap metal traders), around 250 shops are operating here, involving around 1,500 people directly in the business.
Every weekday, 50-60 tonnes of scrap metals are supplied to local metal factories. Although the price range fluctuates frequently, a rough estimation suggests that metals worth Tk1.5 crore are traded here daily.
Who are the buyers? Local industries of copper wire, aluminium utensils, brass items etc. They collect the scrap metals and recycle them into raw materials.
"There is no metal mine in Bangladesh. We supply more than 80% of the raw materials. If there is no market for scrap metals, the local industries will need to import the raw materials at high prices. Actually, we are saving the forex reserves," said Khandker Helaluddin, former president of Metal Samabay Samity.
Most businesses in Becharam Dewri maintain a strong connection with Chattogram's Bhatiary-based shipyards – the main source of their products. They have business partners in the area who primarily bid in tenders, collect lots of mixed metals and send them to Old Dhaka. Shifat Metal Store's owner Jasim's elder brother Nasir Hossain is among them.
Abdul Quader, another partner of Shifat Metal Store, spent two years working at a metal store in Bhatiary. "The job was actually my internship. If you want to trade scrap metal, you have to understand the quality of the metal. It is a mandatory skill," he told The Business Standard.
Jashim and Quader, like some other traders, only collect scrap metals, which are assumeably rich in copper. Their assumptions on the presence of a particular metal, like the percentage of copper within a metallic object, are proven correct most of the time.
They don't have academic knowledge of naval engineering but they know well which parts of a broken ship are rich in which kind of metal. And they can expertly gather the expected amount of metals from scraps.
Lifting a three-foot heavy rod from his store, Jasim said, "More than 90% of this rod [a cut-piece of an electrical circuit used in a ship] is copper."
Trade of scrap metal follows multiple phases between the shipyards and Becharam Dewri. At first, shipbreakers pile up the scraps for sale at Bhatiary. A group of brokers purchase these in bulk through a tender process.
Then they sort the metallic objects into two categories: reusable and recyclable and sell them to another group of traders, like Jasim's elder brother Nasir during the second tender process.
Soon after the scrap metals land in Becharam Dewri, the traders again sort them into multiple categories. Mohammad Azhar Hossain, who spent 23 years in this field, explained, "There are 50-60 types of copper-rich scraps. Each category product has different price tags."
In 2000, after returning from his expatriate life in South Korea, Azhar joined scrap metal trading at a shop, owned by one of his relatives, in the Bhatiary area. He bought 10-15 tonnes of scrap metals and sold them to Dhaka-based traders every day. After 15 years, he began his own business at Becharam Dewri.
How do the prices vary? Some traders gave an idea.
"Suppose we bought 50kg of mixed metals rich in copper, lead, aluminium and brass at Tk28,000, or Tk562 per kg. After sorting them out at Becharam Dewri, each type of metal will be individually sold at the market price of their crude forms. For example, 1kg crude copper at Tk1,010 while 1kg silver at Tk70,000," Azhar said.
Some shops at Becharam Dewri also sell pure metals as ingots or blocks, typically oblong. The crude metals get rerolled at informal recycling plants in remote places in Keraniganj, Narayanganj and Gazipur. The ingots are pricier than the crude metals and some traders said they export them to China and India.
Why do you resell the metals to other parties (recyclers) instead of doing it yourself? "Operating a recycling plant requires a huge amount of investment. We cannot do it ourselves," replied Abdul Quddus, a 65-year-old businessman.
One of the senior businessmen in the Becharam Dewri-based metal market, Abdul Quddus said the net profit from wholesale is minimal. "Earning Tk5,000 profit from a Tk10 lakh investment [in purchasing scrap metal from the shipyards] has become challenging nowadays. Because the market has turned very competitive with an abundance of traders."
There remains another challenge. Due to the dollar crisis, businesses in the shipbreaking sector cannot open LC (Letter of Credit) like before. So, the market needs an adequate supply of scrap metals to thrive smoothly. "As a result, for example, the price of cable wire has shot up to Tk18 per gauge, which was Tk6 just a few years ago," said Quddus.
