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Japan's NSK Group, a leading bearing maker, yesterday launched its distributorship in Bangladesh to tap into Tk 200 crore-a-month business, by teaming up with Azam Enterprise.
Azam Enterprise will initially work as the sole distributor of NSK's industrial bearings, said Saiful Azam, managing director of the local company, at a function in Dhaka.
He said his goal was to provide the sector with original bearings and help save the local industry from counterfeits. Fake bearings dominate the market, as their prices are low compared to the original ones. "It is very difficult to differentiate between original bearings and the fakes," he added.
"The distributorship will help build confidence in buyers." Azam Enterprise plans to open sales centres in all divisional headquarters in a year.
According to sector people, the monthly market size of bearings is around Tk 200 crore. Agriculture and industrial sector are the two largest users of bearings.
Bearing is a ring of small metal balls used in a machine to enable the parts to turn smoothly. As every revolving machine requires different ranges of bearings, the apparently simple looking device has a huge importance and demand in market.
Azam Enterprise and NSK put a range of bearings -- big or small -- on display at yesterday's function. Representatives from different industries joined the function where statistics on counterfeit bearings were presented.
Emamul Ahsan, marketing director of Azam Enterprise, Dennis Sim, sales manger (Southeast Asia) of NSK, its application manager (Asia Pacific) Tanaka Hiroomi, among others, were also present.
NSK with 130 sales operations in all major countries witnessed sales running into $7.7 billion a year, according to the company's 2008 annual report. The company, which has over 62 manufacturing facilities worldwide, employs more than 25,000 people.
Azam Enterprise has been in the bearing business for the last 35 years in a different name. The company distributes rolling bearings in Bangladesh from different parts of the world.
| Product Model | Inside Diameter | Outside Diameter | Thickness |
| 6940 KOYO | 200 | 280 | 38 |
| 6840 KOYO | 200 | 250 | 24 |