Buyers usually nominate a few main line operators (MLOs) to carry major portion of the export cargoes, which bars empty containers of other MLOs to be booked for the job, they said.
That is why, many empty containers are lying idle at different private inland containers causing unprecedented stockpile of export cargoes, they added.
They also urged the shipping ministry to pursue the MLOs to work under Common Carrier Agreement for optimum use of spaces in the mother vessels from transhipment ports needed to quickly transport the country’s export cargoes.
They came up with the recommendations while discussing prolonged delays of shipment of export cargoes, at a virtual meeting organised by the shipping ministry where Shipping Secretary Mejbah Uddin Chowdhury was present.
Exporters at the meeting urged the government to take steps like arranging direct operation of small sized mother vessels from Chattogram port to the export destinations.
They also demanded start of the operation of feeder vessels from Chattogram to China for connecting mother vessels to reach export destinations in the USA and Europe.
At present, export cargoes are sent to their final destinations through transhipment ports in Singapore and Colombo, which are now facing acute congestion.
Terming shortage of empty containers and space in the mother vessels as a ‘global crisis’ prevailing in global shipping sector due to pandemic-hit supply chain disruption, they stressed the need for coordinated efforts of all the stakeholders, including exporters, freight forwarders, shipping agents, ICDs and Chittagong port authority, to find ways out of the crisis.
Chittagong Port Authority Chairman Rear Admiral M Shahjahan, BGMEA President Faruque Hassan, Bangladesh Shipping Agents Association President Syed Mohammad Arif, Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association President Kabir Ahmed and Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association President Nurul Qayyum Khan also spoke.
Source : The Daily Star
