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AyRojgar

Aluminium cookware making

Melting scrap aluminium or buying sheet and spinning it into pots, pans and karai. Ordinary cooking pots are not on BSTI's list of 315 mandatory products, but domestic pressure cookers are (BDS 1752:2006).

  • Last reviewed: 21 September 2026
  • Version 1
Aluminium cookware making

Aluminium cookware making

Starting capital
৳1,50,000 – ৳20,00,000
Editorial estimate
Manpower
3 – 25 people
First sale
45 – 120 days
Editorial estimate
Break-even
5 – 10 months
Editorial estimate
Kind of work
Workshop · Medium difficulty

About the business

The work looks simple and is entirely metal and fire. It starts at a heap of scrap - old pots, window frames, engine parts. Some units melt that scrap into sheet themselves; others buy sheet ready-made. At a factory in the BSCIC industrial estate in Bogura you see the stacked metal scrap, sheets washed in hot water to lift the dirt, roller machines bringing them to size, and then the spinning machine pressing the sheet over a rotating form into the shape of a pot. The small factories of Chattogram work the same rotating moulds. What the photographs from there show is the largest truth about this trade: children work in it, and many stand in front of spinning metal with no goggles, gloves or mask. On the regulatory side the check is clear. Aluminium cooking vessels are not on BSTI's list of 315 mandatory products, so an ordinary pot needs no CM licence. But the neighbouring products are on it - item 200 domestic pressure cookers (BDS 1752:2006), item 207 extruded aluminium profiles (BDS 1879:2014), item 233 aluminium foil for food contact. Move one step from a pot to a pressure cooker and you are inside mandatory certification, and it cannot be sold without it. Many units make the goods before learning that, and then sit on them.

Unit economics

ItemRangeEvidenceSuggest a correction
Monthly working capital৳2,00,000 – ৳25,00,000Editorial estimate
Selling price৳345 – ৳445 / kgEditorial estimate
Variable cost৳283 – ৳303 / kgEditorial estimate
Gross margin12% – 36%Editorial estimate
Time to first revenue45 – 120 daysEditorial estimate
Break-even time5 – 10 monthsEditorial estimate
Cash cycle20 – 90 daysEditorial estimate
Waste / loss3% – 10%Editorial estimate
Daily capacity40 – 400Editorial estimate

What you need to start

  • A spinning machine or lathe with its wooden and steel forms, a roller machine, an edge trimmer, buffing and polishing machines, and if you melt metal a crucible furnace and moulds. Prices could not be verified in this pass.Equipment
  • Scrap aluminium or ready aluminium sheet. No published per-kg price for either could be found in this pass; before starting you must take a rate yourself from the local scrap arot and a sheet seller and build the numbers on that.Starting stock
  • BSTI CM licence is not required for ordinary aluminium pots, which are absent from the list of 315 mandatory products. But domestic pressure cookers (item 200, BDS 1752:2006), extruded aluminium profiles (item 207, BDS 1879:2014) and aluminium foil for food contact (item 233, BDS ASTM B479:2021) are on it, and making any of those makes certification compulsory.Licence
  • Trade licence from the city corporation, municipality or union parishad: form Tk 10, book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000, issued in 3-5 working days, renewed yearly.Licence
  • Keeping the thickness even under hand pressure on a rotating form - that is the core skill, learned standing in a workshop rather than from a book - along with making the forms and judging the heat when melting.Skill
  • A standing relationship with a scrap arot or sheet supplier, plus a source for polishing compound and for handles and lids.Supplier
  • A high-roofed, ventilated shed with a hard floor and a three-phase connection. Not inside a dwelling - metal particles and buffing dust carried into the home cause breathing trouble. A BSCIC estate plot is one answer.Workspace

How the work is done

  1. 1Decide whether you will melt metal or buy ready aluminium sheet and only form it. A melting furnace means separate space, separate fuel and separate risk; buying sheet needs far less capital.
  2. 2Tie down the scrap supply. Settle a rate in advance with the dealers who buy old pots, window frames and engine parts, because the metal price is the only large cost in this business.
  3. 3Take a shed with a high roof and through ventilation, and get a three-phase connection. Spinning and roller machines will not run on single phase.
  4. 4Install the spinning lathe, the roller machine, an edge-trimming tool and a buffing machine. Every size of vessel you intend to make needs its own wooden or steel form.
  5. 5Wash the sheet in hot water to lift the dirt, then bring it to size on the roller machine. Pressing a dirty sheet leaves marks on the vessel and the wholesaler cuts the price for it.
  6. 6Press the sheet over the rotating form, trim the rim level, then buff it bright. Uneven thickness makes the pot burn food, and that is the main test of quality.
  7. 7Buy gloves, goggles and masks and make their use compulsory, and fit guards on the rotating parts. Photographs from the Chattogram factories show many working without any of it - the commonest and costliest mistake in this trade.
  8. 8Do not employ children. It is unlawful, and a child standing in front of a spinning lathe and hot metal is a result that cannot be undone once it happens.
  9. 9Take the trade licence (form Tk 10, book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, fee Tk 100-60,000, issued in 3-5 working days) and ask the local fire service office about clearance for the workshop.
  10. 10Check whether a plot is available in a BSCIC industrial estate; such factories run in the BSCIC area in Bogura. An estate brings power, road access and approvals together.
  11. 11If you are thinking of pressure cookers, arrange the BSTI CM licence first: domestic pressure cookers are item 200 on the mandatory list, BDS 1752:2006. Made without it, the stock simply sits in the godown.
  12. 12Settle the rate and the credit period with the wholesaler in writing, and set a ceiling on how much stock you will release on credit before the wedding season.

Seasons

  1. JanHigh
  2. FebHigh
  3. MarNormal
  4. AprNormal
  5. MayNormal
  6. JunLow
  7. JulLow
  8. AugLow
  9. SepNormal
  10. OctHigh
  11. NovHigh
  12. DecHigh
HighNormalLow

Where it works well

  • Strong fitBogura · Aluminium utensil factories run in the BSCIC industrial estate in Bogura, with the whole chain from scrap to spinning in one place and easy despatch to the haats of the north.
  • Strong fitChattogram · Small factories spin pots on rotating forms here, and the port and ship-breaking yards keep metal scrap plentiful.
  • PossibleCumilla · On the Dhaka-Chattogram highway, within reach of material and wholesalers in both directions.
  • PossibleDhaka · The largest consumer market, with both material and skilled hands near Old Dhaka's metal workshops. Islambagh is said to be the centre of the trade, but no source for that turned up in this pass, so it is not marked STRONG.
  • PossibleGazipur · Factory canteens and workers' mess kitchens create steady demand for large degchis and karai, and sheds cost less than in Dhaka.
  • PossibleJashore · The large wholesale centre of the south-west, convenient for spreading stock across the Khulna division haats.
  • PossibleNarayanganj · An industrial belt next to Dhaka where three-phase power and sheds are easy to find and goods reach Dhaka's wholesalers quickly.
  • PossibleRangpur · A price-conscious rural market where aluminium still outsells steel, and close to the Bogura producers.

Risks and cautions

  • HighOther: Standing at a spinning lathe and hot metal without protection. Photographs from the Chattogram factories show many workers with no goggles, gloves or mask, and children among them. One hand or eye injury costs more than a year's profit and cannot be undone.
  • HighWorking capital: Metal is bought for cash and goods go out on credit. If the metal price jumps, the money that comes back from consignments sold at the old price no longer buys the same quantity - the unit shrinks while the books still show a profit.
  • MediumCompliance: One step from pots to pressure cookers puts you inside mandatory BSTI certification (BDS 1752:2006). Selling pressure cookers without it means seizure and a fine, by which time the money for the forms has already gone.
  • MediumDemand: Steel, non-stick and ceramic vessels are pulling urban buyers away, and questions are being raised about whether cooking in aluminium is healthy. The market here is now price-conscious buyers, caterers and institutional kitchens, where there is nothing to compete on except price.
  • MediumLate payment: The utensil wholesale trade runs on credit. Shops take stock before the wedding season and pay after it ends, and for those two or three months the wages and the electricity bill are yours to carry.

Sources

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