Chattogram Port slid into near paralysis on Wednesday as an indefinite work stoppage took hold, immobilising vessels, halting container deliveries and choking supply chains, bringing import and export activity to a virtual standstill.
The strike, observed by the Port Protection Movement Council, followed consecutive days of eight-hour stoppages beginning on 31 January in protest against the proposed lease of the New Mooring Container Terminal to Dubai-based DP World.
With piloting services completely suspended, no vessel was able to enter the port from the outer anchorage or depart for overseas destinations on Wednesday. All loading, unloading and container delivery operations at the jetties stopped from 8am, port officials said.
With Ramadan approaching, traders cautioned that extended strikes could disrupt supplies of consumer goods and industrial inputs, driving up costs across the market.
Exporters warned of mounting damage if the stoppage continues. “A prolonged port crisis would inevitably hit exports,” said Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association Vice President Md Rezaul Selim.
He stressed the need for an urgent resolution to keep import and export operations running normally.
Despite the growing economic impact, protest leaders said they would not withdraw the programme unless their demands were met.
Port Protection Movement Council coordinator Ibrahim Khokon alleged attempts to undermine the movement, including the detention of port officials in Dhaka, saying the situation left no scope to withdraw or soften the strike.
By Wednesday morning, 14 vessels were berthed at jetties while around 86 ships were stranded at the outer anchorage, unable to move according to schedule, port sources said. Yard congestion rose to 37,312 TEUs, sharply reducing stacking space across terminals and effectively freezing internal cargo movement.
Although lighterage operations from mother vessels to smaller ships at the outer anchorage continued on a limited scale, container handling could not progress as jetty operations remained shut, choking the port’s core functions.
The shutdown has trapped a wide range of essential cargo at the port. Containers are holding food items such as chickpeas, dates, fruits and pulses, alongside industrial raw materials, while bulk carriers remain loaded with edible oil, sugar, fertiliser, wheat, corn, cement clinker, salt and fuel.
Efforts to ease the crisis have so far failed to restore operations, with BGMEA holding talks with protest leaders in Chattogram.
BGMEA Vice President and Chowdhury Fashion Wear Ltd Managing Director Mohammad Rafique Chowdhury said the garment sector was already under severe strain, warning that missed sailings would prevent shipments from reaching buyers on time.
Shipping Ministry Adviser Brigadier General (retd) M Shakhawat Hossain said negotiations were continuing and acknowledged concerns over the deadlock, describing the movement around the port as “entirely political”.
The dispute has also moved to the courts. A writ petition challenging the legality of handing over New Mooring Container Terminal operations to a foreign company was dismissed by the High Court on 29 January.
An appeal has since been accepted by the Appellate Division and is scheduled to be heard before the Chief Justice on 9 February. The petitioner’s lawyer said no agreement regarding the terminal should proceed until the appeal is resolved.
Chattogram Port Authority Director (Administration) Md Omar Farooq could not be reached for comment.
Port users have voiced deep concern over the indefinite strike. After a meeting at a city hotel on Wednesday evening, they urged the government to begin immediate dialogue to resolve the crisis.
Representatives from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Investors Association, the C&F Agents Association and other trade bodies attended the meeting.
Port gridlocked
The prolonged strike has brought congestion across all major terminals at Chattogram Port, highlighting the scale of disruption across the entire port system.
At the Chattogram Container Terminal, two berthed vessels are carrying 1,438 TEUs of export cargo and 884 TEUs of import cargo that remain unhandled.
At the General Cargo Berth, which has 12 jetties, four container vessels and three general cargo ships are berthed. Three of those ships are carrying about 27,800 tonnes of rice, scrap metal and logs, while the container vessels hold more than 1,000 import and export containers.
At the New Mooring Container Terminal, four ocean-going vessels and one ship bound for the Pangaon Inland Container Terminal are waiting, though port officials say the precise container backlog there remains unclear.
Port data show that 98 vessels were within the port system during the early phase of the stoppage. Nine container ships, three general cargo vessels and 12 others were at the main jetty, while the remaining 86 bulk carriers were anchored offshore.
Waiting vessels include 22 food grain ships, five fertiliser carriers, 10 cement clinker vessels, five sugar carriers, two salt ships, 13 oil tankers and 29 general cargo ships. Although 70 to 75 per cent of bulk imports are usually discharged at outer anchorage, unloading has slowed sharply.
Engineer Mehboob Qarib, secretary of the Bangladesh Cargo Vessel Owners Association, said lighterage operations had been kept running by persuading lighter workers to continue. He added that the practice of using lighter vessels as floating warehouses had declined.
Supply chain snaps, losses mount
The immediate impact has been a breakdown in supply chains, with importers unable to release essential goods and exporters prevented from loading cargo onto vessels, disrupting shipping schedules and buyer commitments.
Shipping timetables have already been hit. The container vessel SOL Promis, scheduled to depart Chattogram Container Terminal for Singapore on 3 February after loading export cargo, was unable to unload a single container because of the stoppage. Similar delays are affecting other vessels.
Even Patenga Container Terminal, operated by Saudi-based Red Sea Gateway Terminal, has been affected, as ships cannot berth without pilots, despite yard delivery operations remaining normal.
Shipping operators said losses were rising rapidly. Idle vessels are incurring losses of $15,000 to $20,000 a day, while some operators reported operating costs of $20,000 to $25,000 per vessel per day.
Shipping agents said delayed vessels were also facing demurrage charges of $12,000 to $15,000 a day, costs that would ultimately be passed on to importers and exporters.
Losses are mounting inside the port as well. Operators at the General Cargo Berth said the 12 berth operators were losing about Tk30 lakh a day in wages and operating expenses, while more than 10,000 workers across terminals remain idle and fixed costs continue to accrue.
Factories feel the shock
The disruption has rippled inland, with the Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association saying the movement of export containers from 21 private inland container depots to the port has come to a complete halt.
The association’s Secretary General Ruhul Amin Sikder said export goods—particularly garments—were piling up at depots as containers could not be sent to the port, even though factories had continued production.
The managing director of Sparrow Group said the full scale of losses could not yet be assessed, but warned that if shortages of raw materials forced even a single production line to shut down, losses would range from $1,500 to $2,000 a day.
