The country's exporters have suffered huge losses due to fire and explosion at BM container depot in Sitakunda, Chattogram. Most of the products in the depot were export oriented. There were various types of export products including readymade garments and fruits.
In such a situation, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has written to the affected companies seeking information on their losses. He also asked the Bond Commissionerate to submit the information to the BGMEA.
It is learned that Mitali Group sent export-oriented garments to BM Container Depot on May 31 for export. One of the containers contained 33,000 jackets for boys and girls, valued at 133,800 US dollar. Another container contained 55,000 T-shirts, valued at about 1.5 US dollar.
A top exporter group shipped 5 million garments to the BM container depot last Friday, valued at 2.4 million. Besides, there were 70 containers of different types of fruits, all of which are spoiled by the exporters.
BGMEA Vice President Syed Nazrul Islam said, "So far, a loss of Tk 1,000 crore has been reported. It will take some more time to get the actual loss calculated. In this accident, the export income may be reduced temporarily.
He said, the goods were in the BM container depot. Notable among them are Ananta Group, Four H, Clipton, Pacific Jeans, Impress, JFK Sweater. Most order destinations are Europe, America, China. So far, 44 companies have lost 169 crore 21 lakh 864 US dollars worth of export products
It is learned that Pran-RFL, the country's leading industrial group, has been affected by the BM Depot incident outside the garment sector. About 70 containers of export goods of this industrial group were in that depot, all of which were food products. These food products were to be exported to various countries in the Middle East and Europe. The goods were loaded in containers at the depot before reaching the destination by ship from Chattogram port. Officials of the group said that all their containers were damaged and they feared a financial loss of Tk 20 crore.
Exported goods are brought in covered vans from different factories of the country and loaded in the depot containers. After the customs clearance, the containers full of goods were taken to the port and handed over to the foreign ships. Similarly, 37 types of goods imported through Chattogram port are brought to the depot and the containers are opened and unloaded.
BM Depot has a capacity of 10,000 units for import-export cargo and empty containers. However, the effective capacity is 6.5 thousand units. Last year, the depot managed 77,000 units of import-export cargo containers.
BM Depot is located at Sonaichhari in Sitakunda, 20 km from Chattogram Port. At present there are 19 private container depots of 16 industrial groups and institutions in Chattogram. About 90 per cent of the total goods exported through Chittagong port is transported from these 19 private container depots.
An average of 23 per cent of the containers imported through the port are unloaded from these depots. In addition to import-export cargo containers, private depots also store empty containers.
