Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), a Swiss company, is launching a direct container ship service from Chittagong port to China. This will create an opportunity to bring product-filled containers directly from China to the country, which will take 13 days. At present, it takes 26 days for goods from China to arrive in the country via Singapore and Colombo transshipment ports. The new service has been named ‘Bengal Express’, and its journey will start on 27 April. News: Kaler Kantho
MSC hopes that the garments industry of the country will benefit the most from this new service. At the same time, imported goods will also get the opportunity to reach the country quickly and economically. The service is being launched at a time when traders are stranded around the port of Colombo in Sri Lanka because of congestion. In this new service, the shipping line plans to export goods through Singapore, avoiding the port of Colombo.
Ajmer Hossain Chowdhury, Head of Operations and Logistics, MSC, said, ‘Our first service will start on 27 April with MSC Kymea ship. We will operate the service with a total of six ships. One ship a week will dock at Chittagong port.’
He further said that goods can be transported directly between Chittagong port and South China port through the Bengal Express service. On arrival, the ships will stop at Singapore if there are Chattogram-bound products. If not, it will go directly to Chattogram, which will take 13 days. With the new service, there is an opportunity to transport goods at lower fares and in less time. This will bring a lot of benefits to importing raw materials for the country’s garments industry.
On 7 April, the MSC authority announced the operation of the new route. The route of Bengal Express will be Hong Kong-Yantian in China-Seku in China-Singapore-Tanjum Pelipas-Chattogram. The return route will be Chattogram-Singapore-Hong Kong.
At present, three shipping companies have started direct container ship service on the China-Chattogram route. One is the Danish shipping company MCC Line, three ships a week, Hyundai-SinoKor, five ships a week, SITC-CMA five ships a week. With the launch of the new MSC service, shipping companies will be in competition, and importers and exporters will benefit.
Currently, MCC and Hyundai-SinoKor services are transporting goods on this route in the shortest time. It takes only 11-12 days for each of their ships to come to Chattogram from China. MCC service is also transporting goods directly from Shanghai Ningbo, China to Chattogram.
Hyundai-SinoKor is transporting goods well with five ships a week from Korea-China-Bangladesh (KCB).
