Bangladesh Protests Impacting Ocean And Air Freight

Bangladesh logistics movements have been heavily disrupted, due to a nationwide blackout of internet connections following days of protests.

Violence has broken out between students and police during recent days, leading to numerous casualties and drastic reaction from the Bangladeshi government.

Internet connections were cut last week, and on Saturday a curfew was imposed, stopping operations at ports and airports. From yesterday, limited internet was restored for essential facilities, such as the emergency services, hospitals, airports and ports.

However, the flow of both air and ocean freight cargo has already been significantly impacted and backlogs are expected.

Several containerships have been queued outside the country's main ocean freight port of Chittagong as port operations stopped, and while customs procedures were delayed due to the loss of internet.

Airfreight was also impacted by the blackout. Dhaka airport is understood to be overflowing with cargo as between 3,000 and 3,500 tonnes of freight has backed up in the last few days.

Delays are to be expected, at least during the next 2/3 weeks, as ports and airports deal with backlogs. There may also be some delays in export production as while some factories have started to re-open, others remain closed.

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