Laugfs Terminals Ltd. has identified exporting to the Maldives, Indonesia and African continent, as prospective markets, since having lost out on exporting to its main export market Bangladesh since November 2024, due to its domestic upheavals, an official of the Sri Lanka Board of Investments (BOI) said on Tuesday (4).
“Since November, the company has not been able to export as much of its production as it expected to, due to its primary export market Bangladesh, undergoing domestic upheavals,” an official from the BOI said, speaking to the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) on 4 March.
“The company has since reverted back to selling 40% of its production to the local market, and has sold 34.2 MT (metric-tonnes) ($ 22 million) in exports, and have identified that they are to sell more product to the Maldives, and target Indonesia and Africa as prospective markets for gas export.”
Laugfs Terminals Ltd. is a company that owns and operates a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) transshipment terminal in Hambantota, Sri Lanka.
The company is one of 17 other projects operating under the Commercial Hub regulations introduced in 2012, operating out of BOI identified zones: Katunayake, Koggala, Mirijjavila, Katunayake airport, Hambantota, Colombo and Mattala, under the Finance Act.
Companies operating within the regulations are mandated to engage in entrepreneur trading, off-shore business, head-quarter operations, front-end services and logistics- all of which are meant to be done in an export-oriented manner, with custom-bonded exemptions, under a BOI agreement.
Under the stipulations of the Commercial Hub regulations, which it is subject to, Laugfs is mandated to sell only 40% of its production to the local market, given the export-oriented nature of the project, the COPF found.
According to the BOI official, from November 2024 to February, the company was provided a grace period within which it was to identify alternative export markets, while exports sales fell drastically.
Widespread student protests that have shaken Bangladesh since 1 July 2024, culminating in Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fleeing the country in the middle of the night via helicopter to New Delhi, have severely impacted the domestic economy.
The unrest has reportedly caused economic losses estimated in the billions of dollars. Compounding these challenges, Bangladesh has been grappling with persistently high inflation since early 2022, with the inflation rate soaring to 11.66% in July 2024, the highest level recorded in 13 years, Bangladesh’s The Daily Star reports.