Because of the Covid-19-induced supply chain delays, which have been exacerbated by the Ukraine crisis, freight rates have already jumped by 4 to 5 times. Worsening congestion at Colombo Port, exacerbated by disrupted truckload services, threatens to throw Bangladesh’s export-import trade into a new round of supply chain disruptions. According to traders and logistics service providers, it usually takes eight days for exported goods shipped from Chattogram to reach Colombo and be loaded onto a mother vessel there, but the task is currently taking three days longer due to a serious container build-up in Colombo – South Asia’s main transshipment hub.
This extra time in the shipment of goods has made the exporters unsure of timely delivery of products to their foreign buyers. Shipping lines, meanwhile, are worried that the new crisis will cause financial losses for them as their ships are having to spend idle time at the port.
Freight charges have already increased by 4 to 5 times because of the Covid-19-induced supply chain disruptions which have taken a fresh blow from the Ukraine war. And Colombo Port congestion will only exacerbate these crises, they have said. Ajmer Hossain Chowdhury, head of operations and logistics at Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), informed that the crisis at the Sri Lankan port has been persisting for the past one month.
