Bangladesh opens door to private air cargo operators in logistics push
In a move designed to tackle chronic congestion and delays in airfreight exports, Bangladesh will ...
Medlog's Pangaon Inland Container Terminal
Five months after taking over Bangladesh’s underused Pangaon Inland Container Terminal, MSC’s Medlog has attracted a growing roster of exporters and importers.
It did it by offering significantly lower transport costs and avoiding chronic congestion on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway.
Pangaon has long operated well below capacity despite its strategic location close to Dhaka, the country’s main manufacturing and consumption hub.
If Medlog can sustain the current growth, the terminal could become an important alternative gateway for Bangladesh’s trade flows, reducing pressure on roads linking the capital with Chittagong port.
According to Medlog Bangladesh MD ATM Anisul Millat, in just five months, the company has handled box volumes equivalent to what was processed in an entire year under earlier operators.
“Some renowned buyers and mainline operators are working with us,” Mr Millat told The Loadstar.
Medlog, which secured a 22-year lease on the facility in February, has focused on providing end-to-end logistics services, collecting containers from factories, transporting them to the terminal and moving them by barge to and from Chittagong port.
The strategy is proving attractive because inland waterway transport offers substantial cost savings on trucking. For imports, Medlog charges $327 to move a 20ft container from Chittagong to Dhaka by water, compared with around $440 by road. A 40ft box costs $560 against $670.
Export shipments see even greater savings: $170 for a laden 20ft export container and $280 for a 40ft, from Dhaka to Chittagong, compared with approximately $440 and $570 respectively by road.
Medlog says it began handling export containers in April, the first time this has been moved through the terminal.
The company expects annual throughput to double that of previous years and is investing in additional facilities to support further growth.
Historically, around 70% of Pangaon’s throughput has been import containers. To rebalance volumes, Medlog has renovated the terminal’s container freight station and is developing a cotton warehouse, cold storage facilities, and infrastructure for handling refrigerated cargo – “We want to increase export cargo handling,” said Mr Millat.
The service is already attracting new users. Moin Uddin, a director of a Sheltech Group concern, said his company uses the terminal for shipments to Europe because of its proximity to Dhaka and the quality of service.
“Pangaon terminal is operated by a private company and we get quick service but pay less,” he said. “Until now the number of users at the terminal is low, compared with its capacity, so we get quality services there.”
Industry groups are also watching developments closely.
Inamul Haq Khan, SVP of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said many exporters could be persuaded to use the terminal if service levels remained high.
With Bangladesh’s trade volumes continuing to grow and road bottlenecks becoming increasingly problematic, Medlog’s success at Pangaon could provide a template for shifting more container traffic on to the country’s inland waterways.
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