Home ›› 06 Jun 2022 ›› Front
A total of Tk1, 200 crore including Tk700 crore of export-oriented garment sector has reportedly been lost in the fire and explosion at the private BM Container Depot in Chattogram.
The explosion struck BM Container Depot, a private key installation of export-import supply chain, shortly after 9pm on Saturday. The blast even shattered glasses of windows of nearby houses.
BM Container Depot, a well-equipped Inland Container Depot (ICD) is a joint venture with Netherland that handles all kinds of export items and 37 import items through Chittagong Port with 18 other ICDs.
Initial estimation shows that all containers and different types of machinery in the depot were damaged.
According to Bangladesh Inland Container Depot Association (BICDA), during the fire, there were 1300 goods-laden containers and 3000 empty containers at the BM depot.
Of them, 800 containers were laden with export items, mostly readymade garment items and 500 with import items.
Ruhul Amin Shikder Biplob, Secretary of BICDA, said a total of TK1200 crore was lost in the fire in which the biggest loser was the garment sector that lost goods worth TK 700 core.
Of 800 TEUs export items, 85 per cent were readymade garments and the rest were foods and jute products, he added. There were some chemical products for export and most of which were hydrogen peroxide.
A total of 19 active ICDs in the country, mostly in the Chattogram region, handle pre-shipment process of the total export and post-shipment of 37 items and 23 percent of import through Chattogram Port that handle 93 per cent of the overseas trade of the country.
The fire at the BM Container Depot is believed to be the most devastating accident that has ever happened at the export-import installation of the Chittagong Port.
Over the past few years, the ICDs have processed pre-shipping of the readymade garment, the country’s main export products. Usually garment owners hand over consignments of the ready-made garment to the buyer’s representatives at the ICD on a Freight-on-Board (FOB) basis.
Some of the leading garment buyers in Bangladesh ship their products through BM Container Depot.
BGMEA, the Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, has asked its members to give a full account of the number of goods at the BM depot within two days. The fire damaged the consignment of major buyers sending a shockwave through the garment export industry, said Sayed Nazrul Islam, Senior First Vice President of BGMEA.
According to the Customs and Bond Department, since the raw materials for the export-oriented garment products are imported under the duty-free bond facility, it is mandatory to submit the full account of its export to the Customs and Bangladesh Bank.
AKM Mahabubur Rahman, Commissioner of Bond Commissionerate, Chattogram, said the Customs Department had to be notified within 24 hours about the damage in the fire.
