Stalemate in dangerous cargo shipment continues

As the shipment crisis has continued for more than a month basic chemicals, known as dangerous goods (DG cargo), export has still remained in stalemate.

In such a circumstance, Bangladeshi exporters are trying to send chemical cargo, mainly hydrogen peroxide, to buyers from different countries through India.

Shipping lines of International routes cut off DG cargo to and from Bangladesh after the massive accident at the BM Container Depot in Chattogram last month.

As a result, several export consignments of hydrogen peroxide, chlorine, caustic soda, charcoal and many other chemical products have been stuck in the country.

Many export orders have been canceled and almost all the factories have stopped production.

Some chemical products are being shipped to India by road in the wake of a month-long halt in cargo exports through sea route.

“We are now working on how to ship consignments from India to overseas buyers,” said Md Manirul Islam, General Manager (sales and marketing), Tasnim Chemical Complex Ltd, A concern of Meghna Group, the country’s leading industrial group.

Although re-export from India to other countries is a difficult process, ‘we are still in the process of sending cargo to other countries through the port of Kolkata’.

According to the Basic Chemical Manufacturers Association of Bangladesh, at least 10 factories in Bangladesh produce and export various types of basic chemical products and in FY2020-21 the chemicals exported were worth $21,203,501.8.

Since shipping companies stopped shipping, thousands of tonnes of chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide, caustic soda, chlorine and charcoal were stuck in factory owners’ warehouses and hundreds of containers full of chemicals in various private Inland Container Depots ICDs.

Sources said some factory owners have started sending consignments of chemicals by road to Kolkata, India in the interest of Indian buyers and shipments of a number of chemicals have already been sent.

Shipments of chemical products have been delivered from Kolkata to several places in India, including south Indian port of Chennai, but at a cost several times higher.

It used to cost USD 22 per tonne to send a shipment in Chennai by sea but now it costs USD 70 to send it via Kolkata, said Md Manirul Islam of Tasnim Chemical Complex ltd.

He said the cost of exporting the same goods to third countries through India would also increase alarmingly.

In addition to stopping shipping licenses from transporting DG cargoes, the Chittagong Port Authority and Customs House have also been strict on the import and export of these goods.

The Dangerous Cargo Transport Act of 1953 required the permission of the Navy to ship such goods.

Fatema Akter, Manager of Ocean International Limited OIL, Local shipping agent of Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) and a mainline operator, said no new decisions had been made on the dangerous cargo transport.

In the last week of June, the Basic Chemicals Manufacturer Association wrote a letter to the Commerce Ministry amid the stalemate in exports and uncertainty in imports.

They urged the ministry to take initiative to provide immediate assistance in the export of DG cargoes. But no action has been taken so far to resolve the stalemate, exporters alleged.

Apart from hydrogen peroxide, some other DG cargo exports have been approved. A company has recently received approval to export 175 metric tonnes of caustic soda worth USD 138,250, company sources confirmed.