Bangladesh’s Empty Container Pile-Up at Chattogram Port: What It Means for Indian Trade
Chattogram Port Authority (CPA) has renewed a longstanding request to Bangladesh’s National Board of Revenue (NBR), seeking permission for shipping lines and main line operators to store empty containers at non-bonded locations. The move comes as inland container depots (ICDs) across the country buckle under a growing surplus of empty boxes, squeezing out space needed for export cargo. The bottleneck carries knock-on implications for Indian exporters and freight forwarders who route significant volumes through the port.
A trade gap that keeps widening
The core issue is a structural imbalance: Bangladesh imports far more than it exports, and the container traffic reflects that. The gap between inbound and outbound containers has nearly doubled in five years, rising from 177,832 TEUs in FY22 to a record 329,996 TEUs in FY26. Import volumes have climbed steadily to 1.93 million TEUs in FY26, while exports have lagged at 1.60 million TEUs.
Industry voices argue the real gap is even starker than the headline numbers suggest, since official figures lump empty containers in with loaded ones. Stripping those out for 2023, loaded imports stood at roughly 1.24 million TEUs against loaded exports of just over 7.3 lakh TEUs, pointing to an actual trade imbalance closer to 5.1 lakh TEUs.
Why this matters for India
For Indian businesses, this is more than a neighbourhood logistics story. Chattogram is a key transshipment and trade artery for eastern and northeastern India, handling significant volumes of Indian imports and exports, particularly for West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, and the broader Northeast, where road and rail connectivity to major Indian ports remains a challenge. Congestion or capacity constraints at Chattogram can ripple into delayed cargo movement, higher demurrage costs, and tighter container availability for Indian shippers using the corridor.
With India’s own air and sea cargo volumes hitting record highs this year (AAI data recently showed a 16 per cent jump in air freight for June 2026 alone), efficient regional port infrastructure in neighbouring Bangladesh becomes directly relevant to sustaining that momentum, especially for perishables, textiles, and manufactured exports moving through South Asian supply chains.
The commercial logic behind the delay
Part of the problem, according to industry sources, is a lack of financial incentive to move empty containers quickly. A loaded container can fetch freight of around $300, while an empty one earns shipping lines barely $100, despite taking up identical vessel space and handling resources. That economics discourages prompt repositioning, leaving empty boxes to pile up in depots for longer than necessary.
What the port authority wants
In its 26 July letter, reviving a proposal first floated in October 2025, the CPA argued that current NBR rules, which require bonded warehouse licences for storing empty containers, are worsening congestion at both the port and private depots. It pointed to comparable arrangements in neighbouring countries, implicitly including India, where shipping lines are permitted more flexibility in managing empty container storage outside bonded facilities.
Bangladesh’s 24 private ICDs, with a combined capacity of around 106,000 TEUs, are currently holding 56,565 TEUs of empty boxes, according to industry estimates.
