An indefinite transport strike stalls shipping services and disrupts Bangladesh’s external trade at a time when export and import both began to see pickup after a long slump following the coronavirus pandemic.
Exporters, mainly the apparel makers who are keen to bank on the country’s weakening currency and bumper Christmas orders, have been booking shipping. But a blow came all on a sudden for a wildcat transport strike in a brusque reaction to a fuel-price hike.
They say the two-way trade is in trouble for lack of covered vans and trucks to deliver their goods to depots in Chattogram. And those who already booked the goods onto the containers at the depots are not finding lorries to deliver the cargoes to the port because of the ongoing strike that began Friday following the price hike of fuels by BPC, a state monopoly on petroleum import and marketing, on grounds of global price rises.
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