Ship breakers' demonstration creates gridlock on Dhaka-Ctg highway

Our Correspondent

CHITTAGONG, Mar 6: Owners and workers of ship breaking yards in Chittagong today staged demonstration again to maintain pressure on the government to withdraw the new environmental regulations on import of scrap vessels.

About 80 trucks carrying the demonstrators blocked the Chittagong-Dhaka highway between Bhatiary and Kumira under Sitakunda upazila at around 10.30 am causing untold sufferings to the traffic movement.

Hundreds of vehicles were stranded on both sides on the highway for about three hours, Sitakunda police station said.

The ship breakers kept their yards shut from February 21 to March 2 protesting a court order that requires the importer to submit a toxic chemical free certificate before the scrap ships enter into Bangladesh territory.

The industry leaders reopened their yards on May 3 following successful negotiation with the concerned government officials. But they said they would continue to press their demands with protest programmes until the government withdraws the proposed state order.

The programmes included rallies in the ship breaking industrial area, submission of memorandum to the prime minister through the district administration and blockade on the Chittagong-Dhaka highway in protest against the order.

Industry owners said some 30,000 workers are employed in 100 ship breaking yards along the Sitakunda coast.

The country's around 200 re-rolling mills have suffered because of work stoppage at ship breaking yards in Chittagong.

Sheikh Masudul Alam, a former general secretary of Bangladesh Re-rolling Mills Association (BRMA), told the FE: "Many of our small units have suffered following the long work abstention by the ship breakers as these units are fully dependent on the ship plates."

Mr Masud also said around 50 steel factories mostly located in Dhaka and Narayanganj region have been forced to suspend operation for lack of scrap iron.

In the meantime, the prices of ship plates jumped to Tk 31000 each tonne against Tk 27000 a tonne following the work abstention by the ship breakers.

Md Bashir Ullah, chairman of Bangladesh Steel Mills Association said that small factories with capacity of around 70-80 tonnes a day are the worst sufferers of the work abstention.

According to ship breakers, on an average, 10,000 tonnes of old ship scraps is supplied to the re-rolling mills a day.

Bangladesh has more than 250 re-rolling mills to produce around 2.5 million tonnes of steel a year.

Ship breaking industry supplies around 2.0 million tonnes of scrap to the re-rolling mills.