Mocha spares coast but disrupts economy
A port without activity, no gas to cook food, disrupted production in factories, suspended flights, and rolling blackouts – this is what the fallout from Cyclone Mocha looks like.
The full extent of the havoc the cyclone has wreaked will come to light in the following days, but the vulnerabilities it has already exposed are clear and had been even before the calamity struck.
Although the cyclone made landfall a little shy of 400 kilometres from Dhaka, the fallout reached the capital as well.
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Residents complained of frequent load-shedding throughout Saturday and also on Sunday.
As a precaution, the authorities suspended the gas supply from floating LNG (liquified natural gas) terminals and took the floating regasification facilities to the deep sea yesterday.
Immediately, electricity production plummeted, resulting in countrywide load-shedding to the tune of over 2,000MW on Saturday.
At the same time, the gas crisis meant numerous factories began counting crores of taka in losses.
To minimise damage, both loading and unloading of export and import goods at Chattogram port were halted for two days, causing delays and financial losses for exporters and importers.
The cyclone, which lost severity before crossing Bangladesh Sunday afternoon, uprooted trees and damaged homes in Saint Martin. It also upended the economic wheel of the country and forced people to break routine.
Deadlock at the port
Operational activities of the main seaport of the country remained suspended since Friday.
About 40,588 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) of containers occupying 75% of space in the port yard have not been delivered.
Also, some 73 commercial vessels were dispatched from port jetties and outer anchorages. These ships are floating in the sea with about 27.60 lakh tonnes of daily essentials and industrial goods due to the stoppage of product delivery.
According to the Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association, an organisation of ICD owners, 6,720 TEUs of containers of export goods had been waiting for shipment in 19 ICDs till Sunday.
Out of them, 80% were for readymade garments and the remaining 20% were jute, beverage food, and other products.
All these export products from Chattogram port to transshipment ports like Singapore, Colombo, and Port Kelang via mother vessels would be delayed in reaching their destinations.
Khairul Alam Sujan, vice president of the Bangladesh Freight Forwarder Association, said due to this disaster, the schedule for the arrival of export products has been disrupted.
It was not possible to send the export products to the buyers at the right time, he added.
Azizur Rahman, a senior officer of Abdul Monem Group, told TBS that 30,000 tonnes of raw sugar imported from India were supposed to be released from the bulk carrier ship. But this could not be done.
Traders said the delay in releasing imports of big industrial groups such as Abdul Monem Group would result in port congestion once operations restart.
Bangladesh Shipping Agent Association Chairman Syed Mohammad Arif said open cargo ships could be unloaded at the newly-constructed Patenga container terminal of Chattogram port to ease the congestion.
Md Omar Farooq, secretary of the Chittagong Port Authority, said there will be some difficulty with the operational activities of the port due to suspension, but those could be overcome.
Chittagong Chamber President Mahbubul Alam said, "The operation of Chittagong port has stopped and the country's supply chain will suffer. Import prices of daily necessities and industrial raw materials will increase. The amount of damage cannot be specified at this moment, but thousands of crores will be lost. It will take time for the situation to normalise."
Syed Nazrul Islam, first vice-president of the BGMEA, stated that the global reasons have already plunged the garment sector into a crisis. The suspension of export-import activities at the premier seaport has created panic among garment industry owners regarding the timely shipment of export products, exacerbating the situation.
Factories left reeling
Productions at almost 1,200 heavy industries in Chattogram were suspended on Saturday and Sunday.
Rod manufacturing company KSRM Group, which has a daily production capacity of around 2,100 tonnes, had to stop manufacturing since Friday.
Mehrul Karim, CEO of the group, said, "Like in other industrial plants, our production stopped due to the shutdown of the LNG supply due to the impact of Cyclone Mocha. The factory is unlikely to open until the fallout of the cyclone is tackled."
The BSRM, the leading rod manufacturing company in the country, with a production capacity of 5,500 tonnes in its two factories, also saw its gas supply snapped.
To reduce the losses, the two factories were run using furnace oil and Liquid Diesel Oil (LDL), but the company's production has dropped 40% below capacity.
Similarly, production has stopped in four billet factories of the company.
Tapan Sen Gupta, deputy managing director of BSRM Group, said, "There has been a crisis of both gas and electricity since Friday. Although there is electricity in some factories, production has stopped completely due to lack of gas."
Steel factory owners are no better off.
The two units of GPH Steel in Chattogram, which produce 2,500 metric tonnes of rods per day, also stopped production Friday night.
GPH Ispat Additional Managing Director Mohammad Almas Shimul told TBS, "We have stopped production in two of our units since Friday night due to reduced gas supply. Production cannot be continued due to low gas pressure. It is not possible to start production until the gas supply is normalised."
Rakibul Alam Chowdhury, vice president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said the gas and electricity shortage had led to most garment factories in Chattogram remaining shut since Friday afternoon.
Companies that have emergency shipments are continuing to produce using alternative fuels on their own initiative, but this has increased both production costs and financial losses.
EPZs also suffer
The Chattogram Export Processing Zone (EPZ) authorities confirmed that most of the factories declared a holiday on Sunday due to the gas crisis.
Chittagong EPZ Executive Director Md Abdus Sobhan said, "Production at the internal 72MW power plant of EPZ has also stopped due to the stoppage of LNG gas supply. However, those factories which have emergency shipment schedules are running through their own generators.
Not even north spared
The frequency of power cuts reduced slightly across Lakshmipur district in the last two days, but gas outages still continue in the district town.
Sabrin Akhter, a resident of Bashikpur village of Lakshmipur Sadar upazila, said, till Friday, there was load shedding every hour every day but it has reduced on Saturday and Sunday.
However, she does not know the reason for the decrease.
Zakir Hossain, general manager of Lakshmipur Palli Bidyut, said, "Currently electricity demand from Lakshmipur Palli Bidyut in peak hours is 80MW while only 65-70MW is available there every day."
He also said, "The demand will decrease further in the next few days as there will be no irrigation in paddy fields and the temperature has been decreasing."
SM Zahidul Aslam, manager of Bakhrabad Gas in Lakshmipur, said, "A total of 150 psi gas is supplied towards Lakshmipur from Feni. After supplying gas to Noakhali district and 13 CNG stations on the way, only 7 to 8 psi gas is available for Lakshmipur at the end.
"The demand of the customers of the district cannot be met with so little amount of gas so there is always a gas problem in Lakshmipur."
In Bogura, the same blackout situation persists.
Hasibur Rahman, supervising engineer of Bogura Nesco, said, "Gas supply has been halted from two floating LNG terminals in Maheshkhali due to Cyclone Mocha. Naturally, the production of several gas-fired power plants is partially or totally off. As a result, uninterrupted power supply is not possible in many parts of the country including Bogura."
He hoped that the problem would be solved soon.
Monowarul Islam Ferozi, general manager of Bogura Palli Bidyut Samity-1, said the demand for electricity has increased because of high temperatures and extreme heat.
"In addition, there is a coal crisis in Rampal, and gas supply to the LNG terminal in the sea has been stopped. All things considered, the load shedding is temporary. Area-wise load shedding is being done to reduce customers' suffering."
What state minister for power, energy says
The ongoing gas supply and power outage situation would improve within the next two days, state minister for power, energy, and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid said on Sunday.
"However, it might take around 10-12 days to get the situation back to normal as the pipeline of a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) was damaged by Cyclone Mocha," he said while talking to reporters at the Secretariat.
The cyclone has left without taking any toll on human lives and properties as projected due to its "severity". But its impacts on businesses – from ports to industries - will remain and perhaps even grow in the coming days.
