Last month, the private container depots at Bangladesh's Chittagong Port were handed over the task of handling all containers of imports made by garment manufacturers, to get rid of container congestion at the country's largest seaport.
Subsequently, garment importers alleged that the Inland Container Depots (ICDs) were charging up to three times the nominal charges on full container load (FCL) delivery.
Subsequently, a meeting was held between representatives of readymade garment (RMG) exporters and owners of private container depots to sort out the matter. The private container depot owners have assured BGMEA representatives that they will now not raise the charges for container delivery.
Fibre2fashion spoke to Mr. Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), about the developments. “A meeting was held between Private Container Depots Owners Association and the Chittagong representatives of BGMEA,” he confirmed.
“The main agenda of the meeting was our concern emanating from the decision to pass on the task of handling our containers to private container depots, to reduce congestion at the Chittagong Port. We experienced that a lot of cargos are being delayed and costs also increased,” he said.
“We objected to the Port Authority sending the container to private depots without our approval. That is the responsibility of the freight forwarder and the inland operator. These issues were discussed at the meeting. We have decided to resolve the issue amicably and the depot owners will now not increase the charges,” the BGMEA chief revealed.
Informing further, he said, “Our aim is to reduce the costs as well as the time. Another meeting will be held soon to find a final solution for the issue, since there are a lot of ambiguities involved which need to be taken care of.”
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
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