There are several hundred small furnaces in Shyampur, Jatrabari, Rayerbazar, Islambagh, Jinjira, Lalbagh, Kamrangirchar and other parts of the Old Dhaka. Most of these factories are closing down because of the crisis.

Chan Mia and his peers buy spare and scrap metals from the traders at the Becharam Goli of Rajani Bose Lane of Mitford Hospital area and melt those to make metal bars. Then they sell the bars to traders who supply those to industries dependent on metal such as electric cables and toilet settings.

"Previously I used to buy 1 kg metal for Tk 80 but now I have to buy the same for Tk 140," said Chan Mia. The selling price of 250 grams of metal is now Tk 35. This situation is going on for the last six months.

Md Sirajul Islam, a member of metal traders' co-operative society at Rajani Bose Lane said: "There is a shortage of every type of metal in the market. Previously I used to buy 1 tonne metal a day but now I am buying only 200-300kg."

The supply of metal comes mainly from Chittagong where old ships are scrapped. Old ships are good source of metal. Bidders, mainly from Dhaka, buy the ship metals and sell those to the Old Dhaka traders for melting.

Sirajul said: The price of every type of metal, both local and imported, has increased in the market.

Six months ago the prices (per kg) were -- copper Tk 110, brass Tk 85, steamer brass Tk 110, lead Tk 30, local zinc Tk 40 and imported zinc Tk 80. The current prices are -- copper Tk 30, brass Tk 220-270, lead Tk 75, local zinc Tk 120, imported zinc Tk 300-340.

Asked why the prices have increased, the metal traders alleged that some dishonest traders in Chittagong are selling the metals abroad or 'smuggling' them to India creating a crisis in local market. This is happening because the price of metal is much lower in Bangladesh than in India.

"If I could buy more metals I would have a good profit but now I am just covering my costs," said Sirajul. He said another reason of the crisis is old ships are being brought to Bangladesh in a fewer numbers due to dollar crisis.

Golam Mostafa, a copper trader and president of the co-operative society, said: "We [Bangladesh] are buying the old ships spending foreign currencies but we are not getting the metals from these ships even though we are ready to buy these at quite a higher price."

"Some dishonest businessmen are smuggling out the metals forcing many small furnace factories to close down," he said.

"Previously we used to buy metals at much lower price so we could supply metals at a reasonable price. But now we are buying it at a higher price for the artificial crisis. So the selling prices have increased," said Mostafa.

"Industries like electric cables are dependent on metal as a raw material. The price of cables also increased because of this crisis," he added. "From our co-operative society we are planning to take this issue to the commerce ministry. The government should immediately stop the smuggling of metals."