Bangladesh garment shippers struggle as liners prioritise lucrative China cargo

Image: © Woravit Vijitpanya Bangladesh’s garment exporters are struggling for space amid equipment shortages and growing demand out of China, provoked by the looming Golden Week holiday. Rates from Bangladesh to the US have doubled in the past fortnight, with exporters that send cargo on a delivered-duty-paid system particularly exposed, some saying they have failed to make any fresh bookings. Shovon Islam, MD of apparel exporter Sparrow Group, told The Loadstar he was “struggling” to get new US bookings, adding almost all those who use DDP are facing the same problem, and are now being charged significantly more. Exporters said freight rates more than doubled last month, from $5,000 to $11,400 per 40ft on the Chittagong-US trade, and while those sending freight-on-board, where the buyer covers costs, aren’t being stung, they are still struggling to find space. Apparel exporter Abul Kalam Azad told The Loadstar : “Those who are not in long-term contract with the liners and depend on the spot market are failing to secure fresh bookings and are forced to pay extra to send cargo. “Excessive space consumption by Chinese exporters has created the shortage, and we are being told by the container lines that they simply do not have the required equipment to cater for us.” A Dhaka-based representative of a mainliner told The Loadstar that, from Chittagong to Europe, the net contribution per 40ft to the carrier was $537, while from China it was $3,000 – carriers obviously far more willing to send vessels and equipment to China. An MSC representative explained: “Mother vessels have reduced the number of slots available for Bangladesh and increased the Far East/China availability, which has created the fresh crisis.” Another carrier representative admitted to The Loadstar that Chinese exporters were being given priority, noting that they expected the situation to remain unchanged for the next six to seven weeks, in the build-up to the October Golden Week. Hapag-Lloyd said it had been contending with an equipment crisis over the past three weeks, telling The Loadstar that, “most of the equipment is being sent to China due to high demand”. The spokesperson added: “With the equipment available to us, we will be able to continue providing service next one or two weeks normally. After that we have to be choosy and provide equipment only to priority customers.” Although a Maersk representative told The Loadstar the issues in the Middle East and the need to transit around the Cape of Good Hope meant rates were 25% to 40% higher on Asia-Europe trades and 15% to 25% higher on Asia-US east coast trades.