Bangladesh supply chains have been subject to a series of unfortunate events that have resulted in congestion and disruption at the country’s ports and airports during the last few months.

The latest disruption has been a cargo transport workers strike at the country’s busiest port in Chittagong. While the 48-hour action, which started on Monday, has now seemingly ended, the disruption resulted in the suspension of transport between the port and 20 inland container depots, affecting up to 4,000 containers each day.

Chittagong was also impacted by its customs system crashing last month, following a software update, leaving customs officials and agents unable to access or submit data for a few days.

Dhaka airport was also hit by electronic delays, when all of its four explosive-detection scanners (EDSs) failed the previous day. Flights had to leave the airport without any export cargo until they could be restored to working order and hundreds of tonnes of airfreight was delayed.

In August, a factory labour dispute delayed thousands of garment export orders as hundreds of factories were closed and subsequently vandalised by workers, who were protesting over low wages and poor working conditions.

A devastating flood also hit Bangladesh in August, spreading across 11 districts and hindering export and import transport. Parts of the country’s main cargo route, the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, was waist-deep in water and vehicles were stuck in 40km long traffic jams, enroute to the port and airport.

These disruptions followed major civil unrest in the country during July and early August. Violence broke out between students and police which resulted in numerous casualties.

During this time the government introduced a curfew which closed down factories, and also blacked out the country’s internet connections for a few days, which paralysed customs processes and operations at ports and airports.

With so many incidents contributing to delays for the country’s importers and exporters, congest is rife and it could be some time before Bangladesh logistics operations return to normal.