Ship exports resume after 2 years
The last ship exported from Bangladesh was in September 2022. Ship exports are resuming again after two long years. Chattogram based ship export agency Western Marine Shipyard will deliver a ship named ‘Rayan’ –to the UAE in January first week.
The company has revived this almost forgotten sector of ship export through this landing craft vessel. The company officials said they would export seven more vessels to the same buyers in phases.
According to the National Board of Revenue (NBR), the company exported ships last on 29 January 2020. They exported two ships worth USD 11 million each to India on that occasion. As such, the company returns to exports after five years. The export agency manufactured ships for different local companies and agencies at this time.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, Western Shipyard managing director Captain Sohail Hasan said the standstill in the ship export sector is coming to end after a long time. The shipbuilding sector is growing again after the global recession. It has also increased the possibility of new work orders coming in.
The first company to export ships from Bangladesh was the Ananda Shipyard and Shipways in Dhaka. The company exported a ship to Denmark on 14 September 2006 for the first time in the country’s history. The Western Marine Shipyard joined the business in 2010. The company first exported a seafaring ship to Germany on 30 November that year. These are the lone two ship export companies of the country.
Although the Bangladeshi entrepreneurs stirred some hope around two decades ago, that was short-lived as Bangladesh started to realise the main impact of the global recession in the shipbuilding industries from 2011. The foreign buyers cancelled a number of export orders from Bangladesh at the time. The sector had a massive blow again due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and the start of the Russia-Ukraine war. The local entrepreneurs incurred a massive loss as a result. The loans of these two exporting agencies also became irregular. However, they are turning around now making the most of the special policy assistance of the government.
A total of 10 work orders of the Ananda Shipyard were cancelled at the time of the recession. The cancellation came at a time when the construction works of five of these ships were almost done. They exported two of these ships to a different buyer group two years ago. Now they have buyers for the remaining three under construction ships. The company wants to finish the remaining work on the three ships and export them if the required finance is available.
Speaking regarding this, Ananda Shipyard and Slipways executive director Tariqul Islam said, “Representatives from a Turkish buying group visited our yard two weeks ago. If everything remains fine, these ships could be exported after finishing the remaining construction works.”
According to the NBR and local entrepreneurs, a total of 45 ships and vessels have been exported from the country since 2006. Some 19 of them are seafaring ships. The remaining are ferries and different sorts of seafaring vessels. The overall export income from this sector so far stands at USD 15 billion.
*This report appeared on the print and online versions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Ashish Basu