Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC)

[Rezwan12]

 

 

[Rezwan12]

For Bangladeshi sailors, life on ships has lost steam amid pandemic. They are stuck in ports

  Kamal Talukder, Senior Correspondent,  bdnews24.com

Published: 11 Jul 2020 08:44 AM BdST Updated: 11 Jul 2020 08:44 AM BdST

Shipping seems to have suffered less than other means of transport have dealing with the coronavirus pandemic’s brutal wake, but longer stays on board are leaving the Bangladeshi sailors in a quagmire as most ports are not allowing them to disembark.

 

Many of them have to return by sea as they are unable to catch planes even after their contract or visa has ended.

About 5,000 Bangladeshi officers, sailors, and crew members are working on ships of local or foreign companies and contracts of more than 2,000 of them have ended. But the outbreak has stalled their return or other plans.

Marine engineer Marufur Rahman has returned home recently after he ran down his nine-month contract with Jamuna Group.

The officer of Ocean Pride said panic spread among the sailors in Chattogram when the pandemic began in China.

Shipping slowed down at the time, triggering fears of job losses among the sailors, he said.

Finally, Marufur’s employers received shipping orders and they set sail to Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and  Singapore in the past four months amid the outbreak.  

“The pandemic has had some effect. We weren’t able to disembark in all the cities. Staying on the ship for long can leave someone mentally vulnerable,” he said.

Many of the marine engineers in other companies told him that they cannot return home even after the expiry of their contracts or passports or visas due to the suspension on air travel.

Some others were unable to renew papers in the Bangladeshi embassies at the destinations.

For instance, he said, a Bangladeshi marine engineer in Brazil is willing to return home now after seeing out his contract, but it will take at least 35 days for him to return by sea. He cannot fly back by air now. 

The problem is worse for those working in international firms as they need to travel further. Bangladeshi firms run shipping operations to Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Japan, Vietnam and Singapore.

Restrictions on boarding ships have created another problem, said Sumon Mahmud, the managing director at the Bangladesh Shipping Corporation.

“We can’t recruit new workers even though the old ones have run their contracts,” he said.    

The eight ships of Bangladesh Shipping Corporation are transporting goods amid the pandemic, but fewer companies are hiring the ships now than they would do in normal times, said Sumon.

Not all countries have put restrictions on getting on or off the ships. A housewife, ‘Sadia’, said her husband is a member of a ship’s crew and they were allowed to get off in Australia and New Zealand.

Commodore Syed Ariful Islam, the director general at the Department of Shipping, said they had asked the home ministry to issue electronic travel pass to the sailors, officers and crew members, whose documents expired, in late March fearing that many would get stuck due to the pandemic.

He said the department has confronted no complaints on the complexities stemming from the outbreak.

 

https://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2020/07/11/for-bangladeshi-sailors-life-on-ships-has-lost-steam-amid-pandemic.-they-are-stuck-in-ports

 

[Rezwan12]

12:00 AM, August 21, 2020 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:42 AM, August 21, 2020

Bangladesh getting connected with Vietnam through sea route for the first time

New Bangladesh-China feeder launching tomorrow

Dwaipayan Barua

A new container shipping service between Chattogram and China will be launched tomorrow that will directly link Bangladesh to Vietnam on the sea route for the first time.

CNC Line, a concern of France-based shipping and logistics provider CMA CGM, and Hong Kong-based Shandong International Transportation Corporation (SITC) are jointly launching the new Bay Bengal Express 2 (BBX 2) service.

It will connect ports in China, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Singapore and Vietnam since the shipments onboard BBX 2 would also gain access to the global network of the CMA CGM from the transshipment hub, said Shaokatul Islam, chairman of FAMFA Solution, local agent of SITC. 

A vessel is scheduled to leave the Ningbo port of China tomorrow and it would take 13 days to reach Chattogram. On its way, it would connect with the Shanghai and Shekou ports in China and Port Klang in Malaysia.

On the return trip, the vessel will first go to Singapore and then to the port in the Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam before reaching its destination in Ningbo.

Vietnam would be a handy port of call for Bangladesh as cargoes sent to the US West Coast would reach the destination four or five days earlier.

Currently, it takes around a month to reach export cargoes from Chattogram to the US. They are routed through Singapore; there is no direct feeder service between Chattogram and Vietnam.

Five feeder vessels would be deployed for the new weekly service, said FAMFA Chairman Islam, adding that they were launching the shipping service to cater to the increasing trade between China and Bangladesh.

Currently, there are three feeder services between Chattogram and China. With the new service, businesses will be able to transport their export and import cargoes on this route at a competitive rate.

CNC Line recently stated in its website that as an express service from China to Bangladesh, the BBX 2 promises shippers one of the best transit times in the market.

Nasir Uddin Chowdhury, chairman of the standing committee on port and shipping of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, hopes the new service would open up a new avenue for transshipping in the country's export cargo since the exporters had so far been dependent mostly on Singapore.

 

https://www.thedailystar.net/business/news/bangladesh-getting-connected-vietnam-through-sea-route-the-first-time-1948457

[Patriot_68]

16 hours ago, Rezwan12 said:

12:00 AM, August 21, 2020 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:42 AM, August 21, 2020

Bangladesh getting connected with Vietnam through sea route for the first time

New Bangladesh-China feeder launching tomorrow

Dwaipayan Barua

A new container shipping service between Chattogram and China will be launched tomorrow that will directly link Bangladesh to Vietnam on the sea route for the first time.

CNC Line, a concern of France-based shipping and logistics provider CMA CGM, and Hong Kong-based Shandong International Transportation Corporation (SITC) are jointly launching the new Bay Bengal Express 2 (BBX 2) service.

It will connect ports in China, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Singapore and Vietnam since the shipments onboard BBX 2 would also gain access to the global network of the CMA CGM from the transshipment hub, said Shaokatul Islam, chairman of FAMFA Solution, local agent of SITC. 

A vessel is scheduled to leave the Ningbo port of China tomorrow and it would take 13 days to reach Chattogram. On its way, it would connect with the Shanghai and Shekou ports in China and Port Klang in Malaysia.

On the return trip, the vessel will first go to Singapore and then to the port in the Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam before reaching its destination in Ningbo.

Vietnam would be a handy port of call for Bangladesh as cargoes sent to the US West Coast would reach the destination four or five days earlier.

Currently, it takes around a month to reach export cargoes from Chattogram to the US. They are routed through Singapore; there is no direct feeder service between Chattogram and Vietnam.

Five feeder vessels would be deployed for the new weekly service, said FAMFA Chairman Islam, adding that they were launching the shipping service to cater to the increasing trade between China and Bangladesh.

Currently, there are three feeder services between Chattogram and China. With the new service, businesses will be able to transport their export and import cargoes on this route at a competitive rate.

CNC Line recently stated in its website that as an express service from China to Bangladesh, the BBX 2 promises shippers one of the best transit times in the market.

Nasir Uddin Chowdhury, chairman of the standing committee on port and shipping of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, hopes the new service would open up a new avenue for transshipping in the country's export cargo since the exporters had so far been dependent mostly on Singapore.

 

https://www.thedailystar.net/business/news/bangladesh-getting-connected-vietnam-through-sea-route-the-first-time-1948457

Very good news for the exporters as well as importers of raw materials from China. Currently it takes 3-4 weeks to get materials.