News / Cargo backlog at Bangladesh eases as carriers bring in more ships

Container lines serving strained Bangladesh supply chains are making every effort to clear up the cargo backlogs at Chittagong Port.

The cargo chaos began amid recent political upheaval that brought businesses across the country to a standstill.

A few carriers have deployed additional vessels to lift stranded exports at Chittagong, according to industry sources, including an ad-hoc vessel from Maersk last week, and company sources told The Loadstar more extra sailings were under consideration.

“There is a need to clear the congestion [at Chittagong],” the source said.

Maersk has four intra-Asia weekly scheduled connections out of Bangladesh, including the SH3 service it added last month and last week, the Danish carrier reported a gradual all-round return to normal operations at the port and landside.

“Ports continue to remain operational and there has been an uptick in container movements,” the carrier noted. “As the situation is still fluid and constantly evolving, we will continue to keep a close eye on developments.”

Notwithstanding the challenges from the volatile political conditions, carriers generally appear upbeat about the Bangladesh trade outlook, as global importers increasingly diversify their apparel or RMG [ready-made garment] procurement beyond Chinese sources.

A new weekly intra-Asia service out of Chittagong, announced jointly by Pacific International Lines (PIL) and SeaLead last week, reflects that sentiment. The loop is due to begin at the end of the month, on a rotation of Ningbo, Shanghai, Shekou, Chittagong and Ningbo.

“The launch of the Far East Bangladesh Express highlights our strategic focus on expanding our network coverage in the Indian Subcontinent,” said SeaLead global CEO Suleyman Avci. And Shiva Mahadevan, SeaLead MD for South Asia, the Middle East and Africa, added: “Our new service offers significant advantages to our customers by reducing lead times and improving supply chain efficiency.”

PIL branded the new loop as its China-Chittagong Express (CCE), and said it would offer transits of nine to 14 days and complement its BD1 and BD2 services, serving Bangladesh trade through transhipment  at its base in Singapore.

Meanwhile, as Bangladesh tries to recover from the political crisis, India’s apparel industry stakeholders see it as an opportunity to draw in more RMG orders from western buyers, boosted by the recent positive signals. Indian RMG exports by value were up 12% year on year in July, according to new data

“Long term, buyers remain sceptical of being overly dependent on Bangladesh,” said Sudhir Sekhri, chairman of India’s Apparel Export Promotion Council.

“Even before the current turmoil, buyers were already looking for capacities elsewhere, due to capacity saturation in Bangladesh,” he added.