Bangladesh: strike disrupts inland clinker transport

An indefinite strike by the Bangladesh River Transport Workers’ Federation has disrupted the transport of imported clinker from Chittagong Port to cement plants through inland rivers. No clinker has been transported since Wednesday due to the strike, a spokesman of Chittagong Port told CemNet News.

The offloading of 12 foreign-flag vessels laden with 466,651t of clinker at the port is expected to be affected. Four vessels have seen their offloading of 177,139t of clinker halted mid-operation while eight further ships are yet to get berth. In addition, two vessels with gypsum and slag have also been impacted.

The spokesman added that while at present, the situation was not creating any congestion at the port, it could not be guaranteed that the cargo and vessels at the port would remain unaffected if the strike does not end soon.

Most of the clinker is imported from Singapore, Vietnam and China while India delivers fly ash and slag. The latter is also delivered from Japan.

In the past five years, clinker imports have risen from US$287m in 2007-08 to US$479m in 2011-12.