SIMIC

Nurul Qayyum Khan, president of the Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association (Bicda) said: "The handling of import-export goods at ICDs has been steadily declining since September. Now the ICD business has dropped by about 25 per cent, and the owners are incurring losses in running the depots.

"The drop in ICDs' earnings will affect bank loan repayments. Bank loans, along with interests, will increase further. As 25 per cent of the work has declined, the number of workers will also have to be reduced."

In Bangladesh, there are 19 inland container depots, also known as off-docks, which handle almost 95 per cent of export goods for shipments and 38 types of import goods, including food items like rice, wheat, mustard seed, chickpeas and pulses, according to industry insiders.

The ICDs work to help ease congestion at the Chattogram Port and facilitate quick clearance of full container loads of cargo by allowing unloading or delivery from outside the port area, sources said.

Imran Fahim Noor, managing director of Vertex Off-Dock Logistic Services Limited, said: "ICDs currently face four types of problems - rising oil prices, a soaring dollar, reduced trade volume, and price compromise. We are struggling to stay afloat by dealing with these. If the crisis does not end immediately, we will have to resort to cost cutting."

He said 80-90 TEU export containers would be loaded onto ships at the Vertex depot every day. Now it has come down to 60-70 TEU. Similarly, the handling of imported goods has also decreased by about 25 per cent.

Captain Kamrul Islam Mazumdar, director and chief operating officer of Summit Alliance Port Limited, said: "Export volumes have been steadily declining since September. Imports have also decreased since October. This is alarming for business.

"In normal time, our two ICDs - SAPL and OCL (Ocean Containers Limited) - handled 13,000 TEU of export products per month. Now it has dropped to 10,000 TEUs," he added.

The decline in the handling of import-export goods has also affected cargo transportation business. The number of covered trucks used to carry import-export goods to and from Chattogram Port has also dropped at the same rate. Truck drivers are transporting goods at lower prices than fixed fares due to reduced transport trips.