Bangladesh garment exporters fear $1bn losses after huge airport fire

During the peak export season, a fire that destroyed a cargo complex in Bangladesh’s largest airport has caused severe damage to garment exporters.

On Saturday afternoon, the fire that ripped through Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport’s cargo import area destroyed storage areas that held a large number of exporter-owned raw materials, clothing, and product samples.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) director Faisal Samad said, “We have witnessed a devastating scene inside.”

He claimed that “the entire import section has been reduced to ashes,” and that losses could reach as high as $1 billion.

As firefighters and airport security personnel assessed the damage on Sunday, smoke continued to rise from the burned-out remains of the facility.

“urgent air shipments,” including garments, raw materials, and product samples, are among the items that have been destroyed,” according to senior vice-president of BGMEA Inamul Haq Khan.

He warned that the country’s $47 billion garment industry, which is crucial to the country, could be hampered by the loss of samples. These samples are crucial for finding new customers and growing orders. Our members might miss out on opportunities in the future, he said by losing them.

Uncertainty in the cause of the blaze

One of Bangladesh’s busiest logistics centers, which handles more than 600 metric tons of dry cargo every day, which is twice as much during the peak season of October to December, is the airport cargo village that caught fire.

According to Khan, “environ 200 to 250 factories send their products by air each day.” The financial impact is significant given that scale.

An investigation is currently being conducted to determine the cause of the blaze.

This is Bangladesh’s third major fire to be reported this week. At least 16 people were killed and injured on Tuesday in a fire at a garment factory and a nearby chemical warehouse in Dhaka. Another garment factory building in Chittagong’s export processing zone was destroyed on Thursday by another fire.

The government stated that “any credible evidence of sabotage or arson will be met with a swift and resolute response” and that security services were “thoroughly” looking into all incidents.

It declared, “No act of criminality or provocation will be permitted to disrupt public life or the political process,” and it urged restraint.

After China, Bangladesh exports clothing in second place on the global scale. The industry, which supplies major global retailers like Walmart, H&amp, M, and the Gap, employs about four million workers and generates more than one tenth of the nation’s GDP.