Tag: Bangladesh

  • Fire breaks out on LPG tanker at Kutubdia anchorage

    Fire breaks out on LPG tanker at Kutubdia anchorage

    Fire broke out at LPG tanker at Kutubdia anchorage early Sunday.

    Zonal Commander of Bangladesh Coast Guard East Zone Captain Jahirul Hoque confirmed that fire broke out at the tanker B-LPG Sophia, owned by Bashundhara Group, which was engaged in ship-to-ship transfer of LPG from mother vessel, Captain Nikolas, at the Kutubdia anchorage after midnight.

    All 18 crewmen, two mooring men, three watchmen from the tanker, and eight port security guards from the mother vessel who jumped into the sea after the fire broke out, were rescued by a tugboat, Tufan Express, he said.

    The crew comprises of nine Bangladeshis, eight Indonesians, and one Indian.

    Immediately after hearing the news at 12:55 am the Coast Guard, the vessel’s firefighting tugboat Promotto, one patrol boat, and eight speed boats came to the rescue, said the Coast Guard official adding that navy also sent firefighting tugboats.

    He said the mother vessel remains safe as it teared off the ropes tied with the lighter vessel. However, the lighter vessel was not anchored and drifting freely with other tankers in its vicinity.

    B-LPG Sophia is a medium-sized LPG tanker engaged in lightering LPG from mother tankers in the sea.

  • Explosion and Fire at Bangladesh Scrapyard Kills One, Injures 11

    Explosion and Fire at Bangladesh Scrapyard Kills One, Injures 11

    A serious accident occurred at SN Corporation, one of Bangladesh’s green-certified shipyards, on September 7, when an explosion followed by a fire took place during the dismantling of a tanker. The incident, one of the most severe in recent times, reignited concerns about safety in the shipbreaking industry. Local authorities reported that the explosion occurred while workers were cutting into the engine spaces of the vessel, with conflicting reports suggesting the explosion might have originated from either a fuel tank or a pump room.

    Emergency teams responded quickly, extinguishing the fire and evacuating 12 injured workers. Sadly, one worker, a 38-year-old manager, died from his injuries. The remaining injured, suffering severe burns and other injuries, were transferred to an advanced burn unit. Medical professionals reported that many of the victims sustained burns over 60 to 80 percent of their bodies, in addition to inhalation and hearing damage.

    Floods bring logistics to a grinding halt in Bangladesh

    In response to the incident, the Bangladesh Ministry of Industries suspended operations at the yard and launched an investigation. While the shipyard had green certification, a union representative claimed that safety rules were not followed, pointing to issues with subcontractors and lax enforcement. The tragedy has also brought renewed attention to the broader dangers of the shipbreaking industry, which has seen significant loss of life over the past decade.

    The NGO Shipbreaking Platform has long criticized the shipbreaking industry in South Asia, highlighting the lack of transparency and reporting on incidents. Despite efforts to improve safety standards, the latest tragedy underscores the ongoing risks faced by workers in this hazardous sector.

  • Chennai to host the high seas treaty

    Chennai to host the high seas treaty

    Maritime scientists and southeast Asian leaders will assemble in Chennai on august 27, 2024, for a two day event that will focus on the implementation of the United Nations’ Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement, also called High Seas Treaty. The focus will be on managing and conserving the biodiversity in the high seas in southeast asia, in view of the climate change challenges.

    The BBNJ Agreement, adopted in March 2023 under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), marks a crucial milestone in preserving marine biodiversity and combating climate change. The decision of signing the treaty by India was approved by the Union Cabinet on July 2.

    The workshop, organised by the Bay of Bengal Programme Inter-Governmental Organisation (BOBP-IGO) in collaboration with the High Seas Alliance (HSA) and RISE UP, will bring together senior government officials and policymakers from countries including Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Bhutan, Myanmar and Timor-Leste.

  • Floods bring logistics to a grinding halt in Bangladesh

    Floods bring logistics to a grinding halt in Bangladesh

    Cargo traffic has been severely disrupted as a result of Chittagong city’s isolation from the rest of the nation due to flooded roadways and drowned railway tracks. Consequently, cargo for import and export is building up at a number of storage facilities, including the Chattogram Port yard. The situation has been made worse by the lack of available trucks, and if logistical operations don’t pick back up quickly, congestion is predicted to get worse.

    According to Omar Faruque, Secretary of the Chittagong Port Authority, there is currently no impact on the handling of containers from ships. Though severe weather has already affected cargo operations at the outer anchorage, he voiced concern that a protracted disruption would result in container congestion.

    Ship Recycling Needs to Pick Up for Shipping to Lower Emissions

    Private Inland Container Depots (ICDs), responsible for handling 90% of the country’s exports, are also under pressure. The Bangladesh railway authorities have confirmed that train services will remain suspended until the floodwaters recede from the affected tracks, further complicating the logistics challenges.

  • PIL launches new China-Bangladesh service

    PIL launches new China-Bangladesh service

    A new weekly direct service connecting key ports in China and Bangladesh has been introduced, enhancing trade between the two nations. This service, named China Chittagong Express (CCE), is set to begin operations on 31 August, with vessels jointly managed by a consortium.

    According to Surendran Mathilagath, General Manager of Intra-Asia Services at Pacific International Lines (PIL), this new service is part of their ongoing efforts to support the growing trade between China and Bangladesh. The CCE aims to optimize the transportation of goods in a cost-efficient and reliable manner.

    Ocean Network Express orders 12 methanol dual-fuel container ships

    Mathilagath also noted that the CCE complements PIL’s existing BD1 and BD2 services, which connect Bangladesh via the transshipment hub of Singapore. He emphasized PIL’s commitment to improving connectivity and offering tailored solutions to meet market demands.

  • Chattogram Port: From archaic anchorage to modern marvel

    Chattogram Port: From archaic anchorage to modern marvel

    If you get a chance to take a stroll inside the present-day terminal of Chattogram Port, a world of mechanical marvels awaits. A row of gantry cranes lines the quay along the Karnaphuli riverbank, going skywards before almost melding into each other in the shape of an archway. The sight of these cranes gently swinging their mammoth arms and plucking containers from the decks of ships is a reminder of the wonders of a modern port.

    But if the tides are on your side, you may witness the truly fascinating sight of a giant ship’s arrival, humming rhythmically as it glides to a vacant quay. Most of the thirteen container jetties of the port remain perpetually busy, with 8,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) being loaded and unloaded every day.

    You can lose sight if you try to trace the adventurous routes that containers take from jetty points to seemingly boundless storage yards, especially as it is so easy to be distracted by the elegant, coordinated manoeuvres between vehicles, forklifts, straddle carriers, reach stackers and various other handling equipment.

    The different yards of the port contain around 40,000 TEUs of containers, with more than 5,000 TEUs of goods being delivered from the port daily.

    Chattogram Port, Bangladesh’s premier seaport, handles roughly 90 percent of the South Asian country’s annual $125 billion trade with the rest of the world. Today, it is the 67th busiest container port in the world and, in 2022, it handled 31.4 lakh TEUs of containers.

    But the picture was different five decades ago when the port was in no position to handle containerised cargo. On March 22, 1977, history was created when a small steamship — SS Tenacity — berthed at the port for the first time, carrying with it only six TEUs of containers.

    In the 1970s, there were only five or six shore cranes, each capable of lifting merely three tonnes of cargo. Now, 18 giant gantry cranes can lift and suspend a 40-tonne container without strain.

    “Chattogram Port has undergone a radical transformation in the past few decades,” said Rear Admiral Mohammad Sohail, chairman of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA).

    It was only after the Liberation War that the port saw tremendous infrastructural development, starting with the renovation of the old jetties in the late 1970s.

    As readymade garments entered the country’s export basket in the late 1970s and export earnings quickly became the mainstay of the economy, the port’s transformation became the need of the hour and, from the 1980s onwards, the port authority initiated structural changes.

    The first two dedicated container jetties under the Chittagong Container Terminal were built in 1986, but it took more than two decades to add necessary container-handling equipment like quayside gantry cranes. In 2005, the first four cranes were installed at the terminal.

    With steady growth in container traffic, the authorities planned to build another terminal, eventually completing the New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) with five container jetties in 2007.

    However, delays in deciding on the appointment of a private operator and installing the required modern equipment prevented the NCT from operating in full swing for the next eight years.

    Syed M Arif, chairman of the Bangladesh Shipping Agents Association, said port users suffered a lot from frequent and prolonged container congestion at that time as container traffic increased significantly but the port had not developed proper facilities.

    However, the NCT’s construction had given business leaders the scope to raise their voices and seek the enhancement of facilities at the port to cope with the fast-rising volume of foreign trade.

    After handling a mere 6 TEUs in 1977, container throughput reached 1 million TEUs in 2008. That figure doubled to 2 million TEUs in 2015. The port reached the milestone of 3 million TEUs in 2019.

    Since 2012, the CPA started planning additional expansion projects, including the conversion of a part of the general cargo berth (GCB) into a multi-purpose terminal named Patenga Container Terminal, the development of the Laldia multipurpose terminal and the Bay Terminal mega-project. The GCB conversion plan was later cancelled, while the rest were significantly delayed.

    The cabinet committee approved the Laldia project in 2013, with initial plans to start developing it by 2015. But it was only recently that a sister concern of Danish shipping giant Maersk Group proposed to build the terminal and the government started fresh talks.

    The groundbreaking of the Patenga terminal was held in September 2017, with a plan to complete construction by December 2019. The construction was finally completed in June 2022, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and other complexities.

    In December last year, the CPA reached an agreement with Saudi firm RSGTI to equip and operate the Patenga terminal, but it is scheduled to take two more years for the installation of gantry cranes, which means operations at the port will be limited until then.

    The Bay Terminal project, comprising three terminals, was also delayed. In August 2021, State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury expressed hope that the first of the three terminals would be completed by 2024. The start of operational activities is now expected to begin in 2026.

    Despite such delays, however, the port has not faced much of a logjam as the country’s foreign trade has also experienced a slowdown due to the lingering impacts of the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine War, the Middle East Crisis and the Red Sea impasse.

    Mahbubul Alam, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, says the prevailing slowdown in foreign trade is a challenge but has given some time to the port authorities to complete the projects.

    He stresses the need to expedite projects and implement them on time since the economy may rebound in the coming days.

    CPA Chairman Sohail, however, said all the projects have gained momentum and progressed significantly in recent times. “Major development work is about to start this year.”

    He said the construction of the multi-purpose terminal, one of the three terminals under the Bay Terminal, would start by the middle of 2024.

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