Songa Cheetah takes 17 days to reach Italy from Chattogram port

Container vessel Songa Cheetah took 17 days to reach Italy from Chattogram port despite 48 hours of waiting at Suez Canal and Colombo port.

The Liberian-flagged container, the first-ever ship that established express container service between Bangladesh and Italy, reached the port of Ravenna early Sunday.

The vessel had a stopover at Suez Canal for 36 hours and 12 hours at Colombo port of Sri Lanka for refuelling purposes.

Mohammad Rashed, Chairman of ‘Reliance Shipping and Logistics’ confirmed the news. He said though the ship was scheduled to reach Italy in 14/15 days but it took 17 days to get there.

Citing the event as a ‘great success’ for Bangladesh, he said the frequency of such service will be increased in future if it turns viable, commercially.

Rashed also said that they are receiving wonderful responses from the exporters for sending out containers straight to a European destination.

On 7 February, this container vessel left Chattogram seaport with 983 containers laden with Twenty Equivalent Units (TEUs) and most of the merchandise was apparels.

Generally, a container ship first anchors at a transshipment port in Singapore or Colombo or Malaysia and sometimes in Chinese ports where containers are loaded to a mother vessel before sailing for the USA or Europe.

It takes some 40 to 45 days for Bangladeshi products to reach the host country in Europe or USA.

Similarly, imported cargo containers are brought to Chattogram Port through similar manners, officials said.

With the launching of the express service, a ship will now ply between Chattogram and Italy within 16 to 17 days without making any stopover in between.

As a result, freight charges will go down by some 35 percent and time will be saved by at least 23 days.