Container transport to Ctg port resumes after four days

Container transport between Chattogram port and 18 inland container depots (ICDs) resumed yesterday after an 80-hour work abstention, for which some 2,631 TEUs of containers missed their shipment deadline.

Since Wednesday afternoon, the drivers and helpers of prime mover-trailers refrained from operating the vehicles as the ICD owners have been stalling issuing their appointment letters.

They agreed to resume operation at 4pm yesterday after a four-hour meeting between the worker leaders and ICD owners, Md Abu Bakkar Siddique, general secretary of Chattogram Prime Mover-Trailer Sramik Union, told The Daily Star.

At the meeting, the ICD authorities promised to hand over appointment letters to all the drivers and helpers of about 900 prime movers and trailers within March 21, he said.

Zulfiquer Aziz, chairman of the Chattogram Port Authority (CPA), chaired the meeting at the CPA Bhaban in Chattogram.

But the stalemate has already caused a great damage to the garment sector, the country's highest export earner, said Nasir Uddin Chowdhury, chairman of the standing committee on port and shipping of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

About 89 per cent of the country's export cargoes are brought by trucks and lorries to the ICDs, from where they are sent to the port in containers for exports.

In the last three days, seven vessels left the port without taking any export container for the strike.

Yesterday morning, two vessels -- Xpress Kabru and Penang Bridge -- left the port with only 100 TEUs of goods-laden export containers, whereas they were supposed to carry 1,530, said Saiful Islam, senior manager of Sea Consortium Bangladesh, the vessels' operator.

Some 1,430 TEUs export containers missed export deadline, which is a record for the port, he said.

Kabru was actually scheduled to leave the port on Friday but it waited one more day to take 1,242 TEUs of containers. But only 100 TEUs reached the ship in time, he said.

Penang Bridge was assigned to carry 188 goods-laden export containers. But none reached the port.

Exporters are now fearing huge losses due to delays in completing shipments.

The export cargoes, which missed shipment deadline in Chattogram, would also miss their connecting mother vessels in Colombo, Singapore and Malaysia, from where they are sent to Europe and the US.

"We may have to go for costly air shipments to ensure that the products reach the buyers on time," Chowdhury added.

Usually, around 1,000 TEUs of export containers can be sent to the port from all the ICDs in a day.

The strike has worsened the container congestion. Some 9,000 TEUs of export containers are now piled up in 18 ICDs and it would take another 8 to 9 days for the containers to reach the port.