Foreign buyers expressed resentment over the growing delays in container handling at Chittaging port in recent weeks, after improvement in the previous couple of years, business insiders said.
Some big importers have already asked their suppliers to strictly follow the production schedules as the delivery of cargo through Chittagong port is taking unusually longer time.

One senior member of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association told New Age that that some top European importers including Metro and C&A had conveyed their concerns to their representatives here.
‘Several European importers including Metro have got irked with growing congestions and delays in cargo delivery at Chittgaong port in recent weeks,’ he said.

European market is the destination for more than 60 per cent of Bangladesh’s readymade garment shipments, which account for the country’s nearly three-fourths of export proceeds.
The BGMEA president Abdus Salam Murshedy admitted that speed in cargo handling at Chittgong port dropped much in recent weeks.
‘We are informed that changes in cargo handling agents are causing some hassles and requiring more time for loading and unloading of containers,’ said Murshedy.

He, however, hopes that the situation would improve soon as, according his knowledge, the government was working for appointing new and adequate number of cargo handling agents at the port.
Syed Nasim Manzur, managing director of the country’s largest shoe exporter, Apex Adelchi, told New Age that his company’s 10 containers of imported shoe making equipment remained stranded at the port.
‘Such delivery took less than three days earlier but I am now waiting for 10 days,’ said Manzur, who is also the vice-president of Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

He informed your correspondent that major European importer C&A had notified all its Bangladeshi suppliers and sourcing executives to remain alert as growing delays in handling cargo at Chittagong port might delay shipments.
The country head of a UK-based global retailer told New Age on Monday that they were facing delays in delivery of containers through rail at the inland container terminal in Dhaka.
‘We are facing problems due to failure of schedules of the container carriers though rail from Dhaka ICT to Chittagong port,’ the official of the globally renowned brand said.


-The New Age