Shipment of export containers dropped more than 4.0 per cent in March last over the same period in 2008 at the country's premier Chittagong seaport, feeder operators said Friday.
The number of export containers handled by the Chittagong port in last month was 26,500 against 27,600 in the corresponding month of 2008.
"We have been seeing a negative growth in shipment of export items over the past few months. As per our estimation, it has declined by nearly 4.0 per cent in March," Captain Hasnat, executive director of the OEL, a leading feeder operator in Chittagong-Singapore route, said.
Feeder operators, however, said that the volume of containers carrying import items remained almost same over the past few months.
But, in March, Chittagong port handled a total of 46592 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) import containers against 37059 containers in the same period last year.
Containers handling both in export and import in January and February this year fell over the same period in 2008, according to Chittagong port statistics.
A total of 79154 containers were handled by Chittagong port in February 2009 against 80278 in the same period last year, a fall of 1124 containers.
A total of 82865 containers were handled in January last against 84027 containers in the corresponding period of 2008.
Mr Maung, an operation official at the Maersk Line, said: "Our export business is very dull although this is the peak season."
BGMEA data showed the number of utilisation declaration (UD), issued by the apparel trade body against export orders, fell in the last three consecutive months.
The UD for garment export fell by 4.98 per cent in January, 17.58 per cent in February and 4.38 per cent in March.
BGMEA president Salam Murshedy told the FE: "The downward UD indicates that the export for RMG will fall further in next months."
Mr. Murshedy said the shrinking trend of export shipments was mainly because of global economic crisis.
Captain Hasnat also said: "We used to see huge rise in the shipment of exportable goods during this time in the past."
Chittagong port handles more than 90 per cent export of the country. It handles over 1.0 million containers, of which nearly 400,000 are export cargoes. |
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