Imports fall, exports falter

Imports have dropped by 9 percent in monetary terms in March compared to February in the country, as a fallout of the coronavirus outbreak. Exports have been even harder hit, dropping by 23 per cent in this same time span, according to sources in the National Board of Revenue (NBR).

According to NBR, the import of commercial goods as well as raw material for both local and export-oriented industries, totalled Tk 427.58 billion in monetary terms in March. In February the imports had totaled Tk 499.11 billion. That indicates a 9 per cent drop in important. Compared to January this year, the decrease has been 18 per cent. And in comparison to the corresponding period of last year, imports have dropped by around 9 per cent.

Imports from China picking up

The highest imports come from China and this began to fall in February due to coronavirus, and dropped even further in March. In February, import of commercial goods and raw materials for export-oriented industries from China amounted to Tk 195.94 billion. In March this fell by almost 41 per cent to Tk 62.59 billion. As a result, India overtook China as the country’s import hub.

However, as things return to normal in China, its cargo vessels are carrying goods once again and imports are picking up. On Friday, the vessel Cape Orient arrived at the Chattogram port outer anchorage from China, carrying 1602 containers. At the beginning of March this vessel had brought 885 containers. Similarly, the vessel Queen Star is scheduled to arrive at the port outer anchorage on 10 April with 600 containers of imported goods.

Ahsan Iqbal Chowdhury, managing director of Ocean International Limited, the local agents of Korea’s Hyundai Merchant Marine which ships goods from China, told Prothom Alo that now the vessels coming from China are carrying 600 to 700 more containers.

However, there is no sign of any increase in imports from other countries. The port authorities said that other than from China, containers carried by vessels from other countries are falling in number.

Exports falling rapidly

It had been predicted that exports would fall in March. BGMEA, the apex body of the readymade garment industry owners, had said in the second week of March orders were being suspended and cancelled. Till 1 April, purchase orders for 920 million garments worth USD 2.9 billion have been cancelled or suspended. A certain amount of these garments were supposed to be exported from the port at the end of March.

Exports goods have been stored at 18 private container deports in Chattogram. And now with the orders being cancelled, the volume of goods coming to the depots has also fallen, according to the private Bangladesh Inland Container Deport Association (BICDA).

Secretary general of BICDA Ruhul Amin Sikder, speaking to Prothom Alo, said 92 per cent of the country’s export cargo goes through these deports. Previously 1800 containers would be loaded onto the vessels daily. This has now dropped to 1000.

NBR records show that in February, exports amounted to Tk 272.25 billion. In March this was Tk 208.01 billion.

Research director of the think-tank Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Khandakar Golam Moazzem, spoke to Prothom Alo about the overall situation. He said that the slowdown in economic activities had hit the import sector hard. He said that the indications of an increase in imports from China were encouraging and this would go up further if economic activities also increased. China had the coronavirus situation under control. It was now necessary to place priority on the import of essential commodities. He said the fall in exports had been predicted due to the coronavirus outbreak. He added that until the global situation was normalised, exports would not increase.

* This report appeared in the print edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Ayesha Kabir