UK-based freight forwarding firm Allseas Global Logistics recently proposed to operate three vessels to directly connect Bangladesh’s Chattogram port with Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Liverpool in the United Kingdom. It has already chartered three relatively bigger vessels having capacities of over 1,500 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).
The company chartered the three vessels—MV AMO, MV San Alfanso and MV BBC Finland—having capacities of 1,700 TEUs, 1,800 TEUs and 1,500 TEUs respectively.
Phoenix Shipping Limited, the local agent of Allseas Global Logistics, has already submitted its application to the Chattogram Port Authority (CPA) seeking permission for the three vessels to operate direct Chattogram-North Europe services.
CPA chairman Rear Admiral M Shahjahan told a Bangladesh daily that he had already ‘approved’ the application, but it would take a few days to complete official procedures.
An Italian shipping company had in February launched direct services between Chattogram and the Italian port of Ravenna with two smaller vessels—MV Songa Cheetah and Cape Flores—both having the capacity to carry 1,100 TEUs.
On April 24, a local shipping agent applied to CPA to allow three smaller vessels having capacities ranging from 950 TEUs to 1,150 TEUs chartered by Commodity Supplies AG, a Swiss logistics service provider, to operate directly from Chattogram to Barcelona in Spain and Rotterdam.
Captain Syed Sohel Hasnat, chief executive officer of Phoenix Shipping, hoped that the first vessel MV AMO, which is now in China, would arrive at Chattogram port on May 15 with some empty containers. On its way back, it would carry more than 700 TEUs of export containers to Rotterdam.
The company would try to operate a voyage from Chattogram every 10 days, and therefore, there would be three voyages under the service each month.
Hasnat also said the UK-based freight forwarder took the initiative as it had been facing long delays in transporting Bangladesh’s export cargo to European Union (EU) destinations through connecting mother vessels at transhipment ports.
It now takes more than 40 days to reach export cargoes from Chattogram to EU destinations, a major market for the county’s garment items, he said, hoping that these ships would reach Rotterdam within 23 days.
Source: https://www.fibre2fashion.com/