S Alam Cement Plant shutdown leaves 1,500 workers jobless, cripples local economy

The shutdown of an S Alam Group cement factory on the banks of the Karnaphuli River has pushed around 1,500 workers out of regular employment, crippled hundreds of small businesses and plunged thousands of dependent families into financial uncertainty.

Since the Portland Composite Cement plant in Charpatharghata stopped production on August 1, along with 10 other affiliated factories of the group, the economic fallout has spread well beyond its gates, hitting truck drivers, transport operators, shopkeepers, loaders and local service providers who depended on its daily operations.

For workers who spent decades at the factory, the closure has meant not just the loss of a monthly salary but the collapse of a familiar way of life.

Abul Kalam, who worked in the grinding section for 19 years, still walks past the factory almost every morning. The silence surrounding the once-bustling industrial site reminds him of the livelihood he has lost.

"Now you can hear the river. I never heard the river from here before," he said.

The factory began operations in 2000 and was built at a cost of around $130 million, according to company information. Equipped with German machinery, it had the capacity to grind 1,200 tonnes of cement a day and employed more than 1,500 people at full production, mostly from nearby villages.

Its closure has disrupted an entire local economic ecosystem built around the industrial operation, leaving thousands of people who were not directly employed by the company struggling to make ends meet.
Shahanaj Begum, who opened a tea stall near the factory in 2004, has seen her daily sales collapse from around 400 cups to just 40.

"I opened the shop because hundreds of workers used to pass this road during shift changes. Now there are hardly any customers," she said.

The loss of regular employment has forced many former workers into precarious jobs, often at a fraction of their previous earnings.

Jahangir Alam, 44, who worked on the factory's packing line for 16 years, now survives as a construction day labourer.

"I used to receive my salary regularly on the fifth of every month. Now I carry cement bags at construction sites," he said.

For others, the financial distress has become difficult to explain even to family members. Rokeya Khatun, a former laboratory assistant, has not yet told her daughter that the factory has shut down.

The company has attributed the shutdown to difficulties in opening letters of credit (LCs) to import clinker and other essential raw materials. It said problems in importing supplies since August 2024 had forced it to gradually reduce production before eventually halting operations.

The group's financial affairs and its chairman have also come under investigation, although the legal proceedings and the factory's operational difficulties are separate matters.

The shutdown of the cement plant, alongside 10 other S Alam Group factories, has also raised wider concerns over the employment and economic consequences of action against business groups. The combined closure of the units has reportedly left an estimated 4,500 to 6,000 workers without jobs, while countless informal livelihoods have also been affected.

The government has indicated that action against individuals should not automatically lead to the closure of businesses and the loss of employment. Yet workers and local businesses remain uncertain about whether the factories will reopen, when production might resume or what will happen to their livelihoods.

For the people of Charpatharghata, the question is no longer simply when the factory will restart. It is how long they can survive without the jobs, customers and economic activity that once revolved around it.