DP World's 15-Year Chittagong Terminal Deal Drew Hunger Strikes — Then a Pause. What Shippers Should Watch

The biggest port in the world's second-largest garment exporter has spent the past week on the edge of a labour confrontation, and the trigger is a contract. On the afternoon of 8 October, Chittagong Port Authority chairman Rear Admiral Moniruzzaman and DP World chairman Essa Kazim signed a 15-year concession handing operation of the New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) to the Dubai-based group. The government's pitch is capacity, foreign investment and efficiency. The dockers' reading is rather different: within hours, protesters gathered at the port's main gate.

The escalation was methodical. A human chain on 22 September, a protest procession on 27 September, then on 12 October more than a hundred unionists and activists staged a symbolic hunger strike outside the port's One Stop Service Building and issued a six-day ultimatum: open talks by 18 October or face a "fast-unto-death" from the 19th. The demands, listed by the Port Protection Movement Council and the port unit of the Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal, go beyond the deal itself — cancel the concession, guarantee jobs at NCT and the Chittagong Container Terminal, fill vacant posts, withdraw cases against 15 workers and activists, and publish a contract the unions say was negotiated under a non-disclosure agreement without consulting workers or terminal users.

The cliff-edge passed without a plunge. On 18 October a 16-member delegation met Shipping Minister Shaikh Rabiul Alam in Dhaka, heard the ministry's briefing on the DP World agreement, and announced the fast was postponed — partly, they said, out of consideration for Prime Minister Tarique Rahman's visit to Chattogram that Tuesday. Postponed, not cancelled: coordinators Humayun Kabir and Md Ibrahim Khokon were explicit that further action depends on how negotiations go. That phrasing matters to anyone with cargo in the pipeline, because port labour actions in Bangladesh historically translate into immediate disruption to vessel working and inland evacuation.

Operations, for now, are stable. Zencargo's 20 October market update puts average vessel waiting time at Chittagong at roughly 1.07 days, with yard density tracking 75-80% — normal-busy, but with thin shock-absorption: at those densities even a short go-slow stacks up congestion quickly. The stakes extend well beyond the Bay of Bengal. Chittagong handles more than 92% of Bangladesh's foreign trade, and the country's garment pipeline feeds directly into European and American replenishment cycles ahead of the holiday season. A stalled Chittagong in late October would land on top of an already strained regional network — Colombo transshipment is severely congested and Singapore connections are running two to four weeks late.

Practical takeaways for shippers on South Asia lanes: write port-delay clauses into quotations and contracts for time-sensitive apparel and holiday orders now, not when a strike notice appears; track the late-October negotiation window and treat any resumption of labour action as a trigger to evaluate inland container depot routing via Dhaka; and if your Bangladesh cargo transships through Colombo or Singapore, audit that leg too. Yufeng International Logistics runs Middle East services with Gulf-hub and South Asia transshipment combinations — see the Middle East routes page or write to sales@ruixincargo.com.

Sources: Based on reporting by bdnews24, The Daily Star and Zencargo.