Operators of foreign container feeder vessels have allegedly been facing hassles obtaining waiver certificates, which are mandatory for loading cargo to and from Bangladesh. Around 75 foreign container vessels currently carry around 90 percent of the country’s seaborne containerised cargo while 8 Bangladesh-flagged vessels carry the rest.
The Bangladesh Flag Vessels (Protection of Interest) Act 2019 mandates that Bangladesh-flagged vessels carry at least 50% of seaborne cargo in the country’s foreign trade. To ensure that, it was made mandatory for foreign-flagged vessels to apply to the Mercantile Marine Department (MMD) in Chattogram to obtain a waiver certificate 15 days before they load any cargo to or from Bangladesh.
However, foreign vessel operators alleged they have been facing delays in getting waiver certificates for several months now. They added that they sometimes get only one waiver for a single voyage, permitting them to carry either export or import cargo, which causes financial losses.
In many cases, they alleged waivers were being issued on the condition that their vessels would be kept idle at the port and hold off on loading cargo for a certain period of time, extending vessels’ stay at ports.
At other times, vessels have to leave the port without taking on the expected amount of cargo, which hampers the supply chain.
Sources said the situation worsened after the director general (DG) of the Department of Shipping issued a circular on August 30.
One of the decisions conveyed through that circular was that foreign vessels would not get waivers to load imports for 72 hours prior to the arrival of a Bangladeshi vessel at the trans-shipment port.
Similarly, waivers will not be given to load export cargo for 48 hours after the berthing of a Bangladeshi vessel at Chattogram.
Syed Md Arif, chairman of the Bangladesh Shipping Agents Association (BSAA), termed the move discriminatory and detrimental to the trade of foreign vessels.
DG Shipping Commodore Md Maksud Alam, however, said allegations of delays in obtaining waivers and refusal of waivers were incorrect.
He said most foreign ships are issued waivers, with only one or two cases to the contrary. He also ensured they would address any obstacles to foreign trade.
A foreign vessel named ‘SOL Resilience’ has recently been given a waiver by MMD on the condition that it can berth on October 4 but cannot start loading export cargo till evening on October 5.
It was also communicated by the MMD that the vessel would have to stay at the port till October 7 since a domestic vessel was also at the port and was scheduled to leave on October 6.
Muntasir Rubayat, head of operations of the ship’s local agent GBX Logistics, said their vessel unloaded all of its import containers on the morning of October 5.
It then had to remain idle for 12 hours to comply with the MMD’s conditions.
In another twist, after the vessel started loading exports on October 5 evening and immediately applied for clearance to leave the port on October 7, the port authority ordered the vessel to take on as much cargo as it could and leave by October 6 so that it would not exceed its time at the jetty.
Another vessel under GBX Logistics, ‘SOL Promise’, which berthed at the Chattogram port at 11:00am on Wednesday, was given an export waiver on the condition that it would complete loading by 8:00am yesterday.
However, after import discharge, the vessel could load only 110TEUs of export containers by Wednesday night. It may have to leave behind a significant portion of export shipment, Rubayat said.
