Bangladesh ports and airports have been subject to a whole series of unique events that have led to widespread congestion and disruption to its exports and imports recently.
The latest example is this week’s 48-hour cargo transport strike at the country’s main port in Chittagong. The strike started on Monday and finished today, but resulted in the suspension of transport between the port and several inland depots, delaying up to 4,000 containers each day.
Chittagong port operations also came to a halt last month, when its customs system crashed following a software update, which left customs officials and agents unable to access or submit data for several days.
This followed disruption at Dhaka airport the previous day, when all of its four explosive-detection scanners (EDSs) failed, leaving flights departing without export cargo and hundreds of tonnes of airfreight delayed.
A labour dispute delayed masses of garment export orders in August, when hundreds of factories were closed and workers, who were protesting over low wages and poor working conditions, vandalised factories.
The country was also hit by a devastating flood in August, which spread throughout 11 districts. Much of the country’s main cargo route, the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, was submerged in water and trucks travelling to the port and airport were caught in 40km long traffic jams.
However, the biggest disruption was during a period of civil unrest during July and early August. Riots led to violence between students and police which resulted in numerous deaths.
As the situation deteriorated, the government introduced a curfew that closed factories down, while also blacking out the country’s internet connections for several days as customs processes and port operations came to a halt.
It is no surprise that Bangladesh’s ports and airports are suffering from congestion, and it could be a long time before logistics operations can return to normal.