The country was blocked for a week, the ship faced a five-day delay at Chittagong, and another three-day delay at the transshipment port!
In order to curb the spread of the delta strain of the new crown mutant virus, Bangladesh is scheduled to implement a nationwide "cities lockdown" measure for at least one week starting from July 1.
According to the latest city lockdown measures announced by the Bangladeshi government, from July 1st, under normal circumstances, people will not go out unless they buy necessities, medicines or go to the hospital for medical treatment. All public transportation operations are suspended and shopping malls are closed. Except for emergency service departments and factories, all government and private sectors have stopped working outside the country. Those who violate relevant anti-epidemic regulations may be prosecuted. During the "closed city" period, the army and riot police will patrol the streets to help prevent the epidemic.
The number of coronavirus infections and deaths in Bangladesh continued to break records in the past week. About 8,364 people tested positive on June 28, the highest level since the pandemic last year. The government decided to close all public and private offices for at least one week.
Just the day before the current round of "city lockdown" measures took effect, that is, on June 30, people from many places flocked to ports and bus stations with sacks and hand luggage on their shoulders, hoping to rush home before the lockdown measures took effect. in. In Monshiganj County, near the capital Dhaka, the local port was very crowded and crowded.
In addition, activities in the country’s seaports will remain open.
Although the epidemic has caused a slowdown in the national economy of Bangladesh, in the fiscal year ended yesterday, the throughput of Chittagong, the main port of Bangladesh, still exceeded 3 million teu.
In 2019-20, the port handled 2.79 million TEUs, slightly lower than the 2.8 million TEUs in 2018-19. This was mainly due to the initial impact of the first wave of the epidemic.
When explaining the reason for the increase in cargo volume this year, a port official in Chittagong said: "As the epidemic in Western countries has eased, imports and exports have increased in the past few months."
However, due to long berthing times and delays in Chittagong and remote transshipment ports, the available capacity of feeder ships has decreased, and some feeder ships cannot be used, resulting in a large backlog of inland container yards for export.
According to Ruhul Amin Sikder (Biplob), Secretary General of the Bangladesh Inland Container Warehouse Association (BICDA), the number of exported containers in warehouses is twice the normal level, and this situation has persisted for the past month or so.
"Some containers are stored in the warehouse for up to 15 days," he said.
Sk Abul Kalam Azad, general manager of Hapag-Lloyd’s local agent GBX Logistics, said that during this busy period, the number of feeder vessels available has fallen below the level required to meet demand.
At present, ships are facing a delay of up to 5 days in berthing at Chittagong and another 3 days in delay at the transshipment port.
Azad said: "This waste of time has reduced their monthly average voyages, resulting in limited capacity for feeder ships." He added that this has caused congestion in the warehouse.
Container ships currently waiting outside Chittagong Port
At the same time, the htlogistics.com network stated in a customer inquiry that without airline booking confirmation, the cargo was also stranded at the airport for three to four days. As a result, all hubs faced a large backlog. Orders need to be booked at least five days in advance before being delivered to the carrier, and the shipping charges are only based on the spot rate and each shipment.
