The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) yesterday urged global apparel buyers to nominate more shipping lines and private off-docks to help ensure timely shipment of export containers.
BGMEA President Faruque Hassan made this request during a meeting with various stakeholders, including representatives of main line operators and international buyers, according to a press release.
The meeting, held at the BGMEA office in Dhaka, aimed to discuss ways of addressing a container backlog and vessel shortages that impact garment exports.
At the meeting, the BGMEA chief said many export containers loaded with garment items sit idle for as many as 10 to 15 days at their respective inland container depots before being sent to the Chattogram port.
This is to select shipping lines, freight forwarders and off-docks being nominated for the job by international buyers, he said.
Many global retailers and brands import billions of dollars worth of apparel products from Bangladesh.
“However, they only nominate one or two shipping lines and freight forwarders to transport their cargo,” he said.
The container backlogs also occur since most international buyers chose just four or five off-docks to handle their cargo before shipping.
“This causes delays in shipment as well and exporters are forced to bear additional charges for the delay,” Hasan added.
He urged global apparel buyers, such as H&M and Marks & Spencer, to allow more shipping lines and off-docks to handle their cargo as it would reduce the pressure on making shipments.
Export cargo such as garment items are sent from their factories to private inland container depots where they are stuffed into containers after passing customs before being sent to ports for shipment.
There are 19 such inland container depots in and around Chattogram, where the country’s premier seaport is located.
The container crisis started to gradually worsen since early May as many inland container depots were failing to send export containers for shipment as main line operators reduced the number of bookings accepted due to an acute shortage of empty export containers and delays in getting space on mother vessels at transhipment ports.
At the beginning of last month, most inland container depots were overwhelmed with export containers staying longer than usual.
During a meeting between Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) and various stakeholders on July 12, held for solving the container crisis, it was decided that the BGMEA should convince global buyers to refrain from nominating select shipping liners, freight forwarders and off-docks.
The BGMEA previously asked global apparel retailers and brands through a letter to the Buyers’ Forum, a group of representatives of major apparel buyers, to nominate as many forwarders as possible to ensure shipments were made on time.
Miran Ali, vice president of the BGMEA; Fazlee Shamim Ehsan, a director of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers & Exporters Association; Ziaur Rahman, H&M’s regional country manager; Shwapna Bhowmick, country head of Marks & Spencer; and Angshuman Mitra Mustafi, country manager of Maersk, were present among others at the meeting.
