Chattogram-Italy direct container shipping opens
A direct waterborne service has been introduced between the Chattogram port and an Italian port, paving the way for opening up prospects for faster and cheaper direct container shipping from Bangladesh to Europe.
Liberian flagged container vessel Songa Cheetah, which left the Italian Port of Ravenna on January 17, is now en route to Chattogram and is scheduled to arrive tomorrow.
On its way back to Italy, the vessel is expected to take away around 1,100 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of export containers containing mostly readymade garments.
An Italian shipping company is launching the service with its two small-sized container vessels, including Songa Cheetah. The country has long been suffering from a lack of direct shipping services to Europe, its biggest export destination, mainly due to limited access to large ships at the Chattogram port.
Currently export containers are at first transported on small-sized feeder vessels to four transhipment ports -- Colombo, Singapore, Tanjung Pelepas and Port Klang of Malaysia -- and some ports in China.
Then containers are loaded to bigger mother vessels connecting to Europe, the US and African destinations.
Import-laden containers are also brought to Chattogram via these transhipment ports.
If this first voyage turns out successful, the service would open a new prospect for direct container shipping from Chattogram to Europe, hoped the officials and users of the Chattogram port.
Under a freight on board (DOB) system, international buyers usually have to bear container freight charges in transporting export goods from Bangladesh.
Global shipping costs have increased several times in the past one and a half years amidst the pandemic, which was an issue for concern among the buyers.
In such a context, RifLine Worldwide Logistics, a freight forwarder based in Rome, Italy, which is a client of many European buyers, initiated introduction of a shipping service on the Chattogram-Italy route.
Later RifLine's sister shipping company, Kalypso Compagnia di Navigazione SPA, Italy, applied to Chattogram Port Authority (CPA) for plying vessels on the route.
The CPA accordingly gave permission to two of its chartered vessels, Cape Flores and Songa Cheetah, each of 1,200 TEU capacity, to initially run for six months.
Under a trial voyage, Cape Flores arrived at the Chattogram port from Ravenna on December 24 with some empty containers in 16 days. However, the vessel did not take away any export container on the way back.
Mohammad Rashed, chairman of the two ships' local agent firm Reliance Shipping and Logistics, told The Daily Star that Songa Cheetah was now on way from Italy carrying 945 TEUs of empty containers and 7 TEUs of import containers containing raw materials of garment factories.
It is scheduled to arrive on the morning of February 5, he said.
If the vessel can get berth right upon arrival, it will hopefully leave Chattogram for Italy within two or three days, he said.
The vessel would take away 1,100 TEUs export load containers to the Italian port from where the cargoes would be sent to different European destinations, informed Rashed adding that majority of the export cargoes are RMG goods while the rest are handicrafts, jute and leather goods.
He hoped that the vessel would reach Italy within 16 days while currently it takes 40 to 45 days or more to reach cargoes from the Chattogram port to Europe via transhipment ports.
The freight charge would be around $10,000 per 20-foot container, he said.
Currently, freight cost from the Chattogram port to Europe has risen to over $14,000 per 20-foot container.
Bangladesh Shipping Agents Association (BSAA) Chairman Syed Mohammad Arif said both time and cost would be reduced to a great extent if direct shipping service could be introduced to Europe, the major destination of the country's export cargoes.
Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) President Mahbubul Alam said it would be surely good news for the businesses as such an initiative would pave the way for newer avenues in the country's import-export trade.
He, however, said other big shipping companies can take the avenue into consideration.
Officials in the shipping lines, however, said movement of small-sized vessels on such a route was a bit risky.
Big shipping lines may consider plying vessels on the route only when the Bay Terminal can be made operational, giving access to larger ships, they said.