On Friday, three ships left the Chittagong port without taking the export cargo. Due to the breakdown of the motorists, these containers exported from private depots could not be brought to the container port. Due to which this situation has been created. However, the people concerned said there was little evidence of such a large number of export containers being abandoned in one day due to a breakdown.

The breakdown of the container transport drivers began last Wednesday. There was no problem shipping the export goods on the first day. The second day started to take effect from Thursday. On that day, two cargoes were left without ports. Until yesterday, 8,220 single container products were not exported in two days.

Various containers in Europe and America were the destinations of the cargo containers that could not be shipped. And about 5% of the exports are from the garment sector. These freight containers were first taken from the port of Chittagong to the port of Singapore, Sri Lanka, Colombo and Port Kelang, Malaysia. After that, it was supposed to take a large vessel (Mother Vessel) to different countries of Europe and America.

The Bangladeshi exporters have handed over the freight forwarders’ representatives to the foreign buyers in these container containers. The director of the Freight Forwarders Association, Khairul Alam , told the First Light yesterday that large shipments could not be scheduled for Singapore, Colombo and Port Kelang ports if they could not deliver the goods to the scheduled shipments. As a result, these export products cannot be delivered to foreign buyers in a timely manner, which will put the exporters at a disadvantage. The new problem during the coronavirus crisis is causing major wounds in the country’s export sector.

The Prime Movers Trailer Workers Union, a container movement of carriers and workers, started a sudden halt from Wednesday morning demanding the appointment. As a result, four prime mover trailers operating between Chittagong Port and Depot were stopped. The cargoes exported from the depot are taken to the container port.

Chittagong port data showed that yesterday, a shipping container was booked for carrying 4,000 units of export cargo on the Columbus’ MV Express Napsi. However, it is possible to load 4 single containers of export cargo on the ship. The containers arrived at the port from the depot just before the break-in. The ship could not reach the port because of the break due to delay. In addition, the ‘MV Soul of Luck’, which flew to Singapore, and the 4 ‘single containers could not be delivered to the ship’ MV Ella ‘in Port Kelang, Malaysia.

Saiful Islam, assistant manager of Sea Consortium Bangladesh Limited, which operates the MV Express Napsi ship, said the workers were not being brought from the depot to the container port because the workers did not drive the car. As a result, these containers were forced to leave the port.

4 percent of the export product is deposited in 4 depots of Chittagong. From there, the goods are loaded into containers and transported to the port for shipping. Due to the halt of transport of export goods from the depot, now only the goods are being reached from Kamalapur Depot, Pangaon Terminal and Export Processing Zone of Dhaka, which accounts for about 5 percent of the country’s total export product. However, sources close to the matter said that if the ceasefire continues, the transport of export goods will cease. Because, until yesterday, about 5,000 containers were loaded into the depot. They are in the depot.

Asked why the program hurt the export sector – Prime Minister Moyer Trailer Workers Union president Mohammad Mainuddin said the depot owners did not understand. All the prime mover trailers will be stopped from next Monday if the appointment is not issued.

However, Nurul Qayyum Khan, president of the Container Depot Owners Association, said they had a policy decision on assignment of appointments. But the workers’ program has to be withdrawn. 

Exporters are facing losses in this position on both sides. Because, after a day of container shipments from Chittagong, a large ship arriving in Singapore, Colombo or Malaysia ports lasts at least a week. And if the drivers of Prime Mover Trailers continue to pause, there will be a disaster in exports of goods.