Another direct vessel shipping service between Chattogram and two European anchorages is going to be introduced coming month while enterprises are underway to launch direct services connecting many further destinations in the European Union (EU).
Before February, an Italian shipping company launched direct services between Chattogram and Italy, opening the door for transport of the country’s import weight directly to any destination in the EU avoiding transhipment anchorages.
Switzerland- grounded maritime logistics service provider Commodity Inventories AG has taken the action to launch the service.
Three of its chartered vessels will operate from Barcelona in Spain to Chattogram to the largest European Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Reliance Shipping and Logistics, the establishment’s Bangladeshi agent, applied to the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) president on Sunday to grant authorization for running the direct liner shipping using vessels MV Spica, MV Andromeda J and MV Music.
Reliance Shipping Chairman Mohammed Rashed hoped they would get the CPA’s authorization soon.
Once the authorization is granted, they have a plan to launch the service in the third week of May, when one of the three vessels will start from Barcelona for Chattogram, he said.
The country has long been suffering from a lack of direct shipping services to Europe, its biggest import destination, substantially due to limited access of large vessels at Chattogram harborage.
Presently, export-laden holders are first transported on small confluent vessels to transhipment anchorages, including the Port of Colombo, Port of Singapore, Port of Tanjung Pelepas, Port Klang of Malaysia and some others in China.
The holders are also loaded onto bigger mama vessels to reach destinations in Europe, the US and Africa.
At present, the transhipment anchorages, particularly the Port of Colombo, are facing dragged vessel traffic. It takes around 40 days to reach the country’s import loadings to destinations in the EU.
Rashed said once the new service is available, it would be possible to shoot import loadings to Barcelona in 20 days to 22 days.
CPA Chairman M Shahjahan told The Daily Star that direct shipping services to destinations in the EU would always be eaten and prioritised.
He said the authorization would now be handed through sanctioned procedures.
Shahjahan also informed that within the coming many months there would be further vessels sailing directly from Chattogram to Europe and other destinations as further countries have formerly expressed keen interest in this regard.
Sources said the Port of Leixões of Portugal was in the process of subscribing to a memorandum of understanding with the CPA to enable direct shipping services while Slovakia had conveyed their interest.
Attesting it, the CPA president said the United Arab Emirates had also shown interest in this regard.
He hoped that these engagements would reduce import lead time and increase the country’s import orders.