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Fresh blockade leaves businesses in deep trouble

Garment shipment, delivery of essentials called off halfway

Sohel Parvez
The sudden announcement of a fresh blockade programme by BNP and its allies on Friday night came as a blow to exporters and domestic businesses as many had to suspend their deliveries halfway.
And many trucks loaded with rice and essential commodities were stranded on the way, meaning the prices of those will soar.
"As the announcement came late, many trucks that were sent on Friday night could not reach their destination," said Nirod Boron Saha, president of an association of rice wholesalers and commission agents in Naogaon, a rice trading hub in the north.
Mohammadi Group, a garment exporter, had to shelve its plan of delivering goods from its factories to Chittagong port at the last moment.
The company had hired 13 covered vans at fares more than double (Tk 40,000) the normal rate (Tk 16,000-18,000).
"We agreed to pay higher as there were no vans to hire. And when the news of blockade came, six of the vans were already loaded. We had to stop the deliveries at the last moment," said Sajedul Azad, general manager in charge of export and shipping of the Group.
"Now we will have to request the buyers (of the garments) to give us some more time. If they do not agree, we will have to go for expensive air shipment," he said.
Not that only shipment was hampered, factories are facing problems in bringing imported raw materials from the port area.
"The losses are huge as we cannot run our factories properly due to a shortage of raw materials," Azad said.
Kamruzzaman Kamal, director (marketing) of Pran-RFL Group, said they cancelled all plans to deliver products to their distributors. "Stocks piled up as we could not make deliver}'last week," he said.
Pran, a leading food processor, makes its production plans based on the orders coming from the market. Production has fallen as delivery has been hampered due to frequent shutdowns and blockades, Kamal said.
The overall consumption has also come down as people hardly go to shops for fear of street violence, he added. "If the situation continues, we will be in deep trouble."
Sk Masadul Alam Masud, chairman of Bangladesh Auto Re-rolling Mills Association, said businesses have been in a standstill due to the current political instability.
"The burden of bank interest rises along with the pressure to pay workers' salaries although our production suffers often," he said, adding that he had to cut production by 40 percent for the recent shutdowns.
"If we don't get raw materials next week, we will have to shut our factory," Masud said.
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Daily wage labourers suffer the most as they earn nothing when there is no delivery, loading and unloading of rods, he said.
Rezaul Alam, chief operating officer of transport service provider Nippon Express, said risk of violence and losses has increased along with costs as truckers charge higher fearing arson and vandalism.
"Shipping schedule has all been hampered," Alam said, adding that they expected there would not be any shutdown or blockade yesterday.
"All our customers had prepared to deliver products on Saturday, but they couldn't," said the official of Nippon which carries goods of apparel makers.