The were speaking at a press conference at the conference room of BGMEA’s Khulshi, Chittagong, office
Leaders of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) on Wednesday said that the recent student protests demanding safe roads, and the subsequent transport strikes across the country, hit the apparel industry very hard.
The were speaking at a press conference at the conference room of BGMEA’s Khulshi, Chittagong, office.
“Although the students returned home, the subsequent strike called by the transport service providers disrupted civil life and export-import activities of the country. The apparel sector has been worst hitby the strike. The export-import goods could not be transported due to the strike,” said BGMEA’s First Vice-President, Mainuddin Ahmed.
“The imported goods could not be unloaded from the maritime port. Export items also did not reach the port on time for shipment. As a result, productivity at the factory was hampered to a great extent.
“Buyers are asking for discounts as apparel exporters have failed to ship on time. Moreover, we have to account for additional airfreight charges,”he added.
He further said that five vessels left Chittagong Port on August 5 without carrying 1168 export box containers. “We will issue a circular asking entrepreneurs how much loss they incurred in this regard.”
“Chittagong Port has a capacity of accommodating 48,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers. On July 29, the port had 41,000 TEUs while it was 43,507 TEUs on August 7. The delivery operations of export-import containers were disrupted at the port due to the unfortunate incidents,” said Mainuddin.
“We do not want to go through a similar situation further. The strike will have an adverse effect on us since we will have to pay wages and other allowances ahead of Eid-ul-Azha,”he said at the press conference.
BGMEA’s Vice-President, Md Ferdous, Directors Kazi Mahbub Uddin, Saifullah Monsu,r and Amjad Hossain Chowdhury, among others, attended the press conference.
Source: Dhaka Tribune.