How global freight rates costing export trade | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Friday
July 11, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
FRIDAY, JULY 11, 2025
How global freight rates costing export trade

Trade

Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury
14 November, 2021, 10:25 pm
Last modified: 15 November, 2021, 10:33 am

Related News

  • Shipping agents alarmed as Service Level Agreement omitted from meeting agenda on berth charge hike
  • NBR’s policy reversal jolts oceangoing shipping, $3.5b investment, $1b yearly freight at risk
  • National Action Plan to boost shipping sector competitiveness: Sakhawat
  • BSC plans to re-enter container shipping after over a decade
  • Record container, cargo handling: Ctg port, shipping ministry employees to get Tk60,000 incentive bonus each

How global freight rates costing export trade

Shipping charges are forecast to remain high until 2023

Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury
14 November, 2021, 10:25 pm
Last modified: 15 November, 2021, 10:33 am
Infographic: TBS
Infographic: TBS

It seems a breather does not last long for exporters.

The exporters had been struggling with the business for around one and a half years until things started to look up in August with the pandemic easing, but as more and more economies reopened, they woke up to see freight charges hit a record high.

The businessmen tried to cope with the new normal, but then came the diesel price hike, making cargo transportation by road from factories to ports pricier. Plus, loading export goods into containers and putting the export boxes on ships also turned costlier.

Even a year ago, transporting a twenty-foot container to the USA used to cost $3,000 and to Europe $2,500, according to the Bangladesh Shipping Agents Association.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

But with fewer ships and limited containers leading to a disrupted supply chain, the freight charges now hit $18,000 to the USA and $15,000 to Europe, plus a 23% spike in cargo handling charges imposed by the off-docks, said the association President Syed Arif.

International shipping rates are at an all-time high, and transporting a 40-foot steel container from Shanghai to Rotterdam now costs a record $10,522, up by 547% from the five-year average. The shipping cost between China and the UK has gone up by 350%, according to Bloomberg.

Prices of new containers also have doubled to $3,500 per cost equivalent unit (CEU) from last year's. Shipping charges are forecast to remain at these levels until 2023.

Apart from record high freight rates, shipments are facing longer waiting times at ports.

Amid the turbulent business weather, Bangladeshi apparel manufacturers and exporters find the local diesel hike a newly emerged concern.

Exporters said they have been paying 30%-50% more for sending goods from factories to shipping points since the diesel hike in early November.

On 8 November, cargo handling costs were hiked 23% by the inland container depots with a retrospective effect from 4 November, bringing a fresh headwind to the country's apparel export.

Subsequently, apparel exporters requested the off-docks to postpone or cancel the spiked container handling charges.

"The hike in container handling charges was unilateral since there had been no discussion with the stakeholders," in a letter, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) told the Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association (Bicda).  

The letter further states the abrupt hike will put the pandemic-hit apparel-makers in trouble in shipping their export orders.

In reply to that, Bicda President Nurul Qayyum Khan on Sunday said with the 23% hikes, they have adjusted the spiralled diesel and off-dock operational costs.  

"This is not merely a container handling hike, rather a required adjustment in the face of diesel hikes. All the container handling segments are diesel-run. We cannot run the ICDs with subsidies," said the president.

Syed Nazrul Islam, first vice-president of BGMEA, said they had been shipping the export orders with the current market rates. But the abrupt hike in cargo handling charges puts them in trouble in delivering the remaining orders to foreign buyers.          

On condition of anonymity, a former BGMEA leader said, "The freight charges have spiked abnormally thanks to the pandemic. The crisis is temporary. But with these excuses, a 23% increase in ICD charges is completely unacceptable."

At the 19 private ICDs, export goods are loaded into containers and taken to Chattogram port for shipping. Besides, 37 types of imported goods including food items are brought to the off-docks from the port for unloading.

The ICDs are located within 1 to 26 kilometres of the port.

Economy / Top News

Shipping / Cargo Handling

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Bangladesh's delegation, led by Commerce Adviser Sk Bashir Uddin, began high-level negotiations with USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer at 9pm Bangladesh time on Thursday (10 July). Photo: Collected from the Facebook handle of Golam Mortoza, Press Minister at the Bangladesh Embassy in the US
    No need to worry as US tariff talks ongoing: Fouzul tells biz leaders
  • Economist Abul Barkat; Photo: Courtesy
    Economist Abul Barkat arrested in graft case
  • Representational image. Photo: Syed Zakir Hossain/TBS
    Explainer: Why SSC pass rate hit a 17-year low

MOST VIEWED

  • Graphics: TBS
    BB raises startup fund limit, drops upper age barrier
  • Workers pack undergarments at the packing section of a garment factory in Ashulia, on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, April 19, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Fatima Tuj Johora
    After US tariffs, jobs hang by a thread in Bangladesh's garments sector
  • Photo: Mohammad Minhaj Uddin/TBS
    SSC, equivalent results: Pass rate drops to 68.45%, GPA-5 also declines
  • File photo of containers at Chattogram port/TBS
    US buyers push Bangladeshi exporters to share extra tariff costs
  • Govt vehicle purchase, foreign trip, new building construction banned: Finance ministry
    Govt vehicle purchase, foreign trip, new building construction banned: Finance ministry
  • Students sit for SSC exam at Motijheel Girls' High School on 10 April 2025. Photo: Mehedi Hasan/TBS
    SSC exam results out: Here's how you can check online and via SMS

Related News

  • Shipping agents alarmed as Service Level Agreement omitted from meeting agenda on berth charge hike
  • NBR’s policy reversal jolts oceangoing shipping, $3.5b investment, $1b yearly freight at risk
  • National Action Plan to boost shipping sector competitiveness: Sakhawat
  • BSC plans to re-enter container shipping after over a decade
  • Record container, cargo handling: Ctg port, shipping ministry employees to get Tk60,000 incentive bonus each

Features

Photo: Collected/BBC

What Hitler’s tariff policy misfire can teach the modern world

5h | The Big Picture
Illustration: TBS

Behind closed doors: Why women in Bangladesh stay in abusive marriages

8h | Panorama
Purbachl’s 144-acre Sal forest is an essential part of the area’s biodiversity. Within it, 128 species of plants and 74 species of animals — many of them endangered — have been identified. Photo: Syed Zakir Hossain/TBS

A forest saved: Inside the restoration of Purbachal's last Sal grove

8h | Panorama
Photo: Rajib Dhar/TBS

11 July 2024: Riot vehicles, water cannons hit the streets as police crack down on protesters

1h | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

'Hypocrisy' will not continue, Iran tells IAEA

'Hypocrisy' will not continue, Iran tells IAEA

4h | TBS World
OpenAI to release web browser in challenge to Google Chrome

OpenAI to release web browser in challenge to Google Chrome

3h | TBS World
Will the title 'Honorable and Excellency' be abolished?

Will the title 'Honorable and Excellency' be abolished?

4h | TBS Today
July Declaration must be constitutionally recognized: Akhtar Hossain

July Declaration must be constitutionally recognized: Akhtar Hossain

4h | TBS Today
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net