Bangladesh, Aug. 17 -- Bangladesh's ready-made garment (RMG) industry is trapped in a structural capital-energy lock-in, where expanding machinery under existing technologies could increase overall energy consumption rather than improve efficiency, according to a study by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).

Advertisement The study found that the sewing segment, which accounts for 85.2 per cent of installed machine capacity, has an irreplaceable core of standard sewing equipment, limiting energy savings from machine substitution in the section to less than 3 per cent.

By contrast, optimising equipment in the cutting section, which constitutes only 5.5 per cent of total installed machinery, yields a disproportionate 27.3 per cent of to...