Bangladesh: clinker shipment held at port

A clinker shipment from Singapore for Bangladesh's second largest cement producer HeidelbergCement Bangladesh (HCB) has been hindered by litigation for the past month. 

According to sources from the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA), as well as Bangladesh shipping Industry sources, a foreign flag bulk carrier DD Fidelity has been detained since 6 December 2012 on the order of the High Court of Bangladesh due to a dispute regarding the original bill of landing.

The vessel shipped 22,810t of clinker from Singapore on 28 November, 2012, reportedly for HCB, but did not offload cargo which prompted the importer to go pursue litigation. As such, HCB has reportedly incurred losses due to issues in in offloading the clinker.

HCB’s manufacturing units are situated in Chittagong and Kanchpur with a total installed capacity of 2.1Mta. At the start of last year the company brought on 0.75Mta of additional grinding capacity through the installation of a new mall mill at its Chittagong plant.

The company reported net profit after tax of BDT1087.76m (US$13.6m) in the first nine months of 2012 compared to BDT589.86m in the same period of the previous year. Earnings per share for 9M12 stood at BDT19.25 compared to BDT10.44 in 9M11.

Due to the country’s lack of limestone reserves Bangladesh imports clinker primarily from Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Philippines and also small quantities from India by rail. In last five years clinker imports have increased from US$287m in 2007-08 to US$479m in 2011-12.