Dwaipayan Barua

The 100 per cent waiver on store rent for import containers to solve the acute container congestion at Chattogram port ended yesterday with virtually no improvement in the space crisis.

The logistics and freight forwarding business in Bangladesh has been devastated by the global coronavirus pandemic, which has led to a nosedive in transportation of goods by land, air and sea.

That something is amiss becomes evident right at the gates of the Chattogram port: there are no long queues of goods-transporting vehicles. Instead, only one or two occasionally rumbles past.

Slow delivery of goods has created space shortage at the Chattogram port and a long queue of vessels at the outer anchorage in the last few days.

Chattogram port authorities have delayed scheduled berthing of three vessels due to acute space shortage at its yard designated to imported goods-laden containers.

Lentil prices shot up in Chattogram in the last two weeks thanks to a sudden rise in its demand as a relief item, countrywide restriction on movement and poor supply.

Chattogram port is fast running out of storage space as reefer containers used to transport perishable goods are piling up due to limited delivery in the past few days amid the countrywide lockdown imposed to contain the spread of lethal coronavirus.

Loading and unloading of bulk cargoes and containers to and from the vessels are going on as normal at the Chattogram port, which handles 93 per cent of the country’s consignments, with the view to keeping the supply chain smooth amidst the ongoing countrywide movement restrictions.

Wholesale prices of commodities witnessed a drastic fall at the Khatunganj wholesale hub in Chattogram in the last two days amid adequate supply and a drop in demand as the fear over coronavirus outbreak has kept customers at bay.

Ensuring Intensive Care Unit (ICU) facilities for patients remains a major challenge to tackle coronavirus in Chattogram, according to the authorities concerned.

Garment workers have continued to manufacture apparel items for Western buyers despite growing fears of coronavirus contagion in the factories given the close proximity of the workstations.

It’s yet to be done by everyone, but a few supershops in the port city are standing out by employing exemplary cautionary measures to protect against the possible spread of coronavirus, earning praise of customers.

Prices of locally grown and imported onions have seen a sharp fall in Dhaka and Chattogram, as India has recently resumed export of the vegetable after a five-and-a-half-month ban.

The coronavirus pandemic that is sweeping the world has taken a heavy toll on Bangladesh’s foreign trade through Chattogram port.

The owners of private inland container depots (ICDs) stopped transporting export containers of three foreign companies since yesterday morning to press home their long demand of a 22 per cent rise in tariff.

The government is set to construct a deep seaport at Matarbari in Cox’s Bazar to help the country handle rising volumes of exports and imports and ease the pressure on the Chattogram port.

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.

Container transport between Chattogram port and 19 private inland container depots (ICDs) remained suspended for around 34 hours until yesterday afternoon due to work abstention by drivers and helpers of prime mover-trailers.

Bangladesh produced 96.07 million kilogrammes of tea last year, its highest in 166 years, on the back of favourable weather round-the-year and supportive measures.

Chittagong port posted a 3.32 percent growth in container handling in 2019, the slowest in seven years, pointing to a slowdown in economic activities.