Bangladesh scrap activity slowly resumes after curfews

Industrial activity across Bangladesh has begun to slowly resume today following a slight easing in government curfews, but spotty communications networks remain a hurdle to the full resumption of business in the steel and ferrous scrap sector.

The Bangladesh government began to relax curfews today following a near nationwide curfew, communications blackout and deployment of the national army on 19 July, as it attempted to quell demonstrations and violent clashes across the capital, Dhaka, and the broader country.

More than 27,000 army personnel across 57 districts were deployed to stem clashes between protestors and police centering on quota reform for the allocation of government jobs, according to Bangladeshi state-controlled media.

The government officially amended the quota allocation on Tuesday, according to an official gazette issued by the Ministry of Public Administration on 23 July.

Curfews have been lifted in the Dhaka district to between 10am and 5pm and to 9am to 6pm in the Sylhet district on 24 and 25 July, according to the UK Foreign Office.

Communications networks have also begun to slowly be restored, but market participants noted that for now networks and internet availability remain spotty which has hampered a return to normalcy.

Broadband internet was restored to specific areas, including diplomatic and commercial zones, on Tuesday after five days of outage, but social media remain restricted, according to state-controlled media.

Steelmaking operations were broadly not impacted by the escalation in events in recent days, one major regional steelmaker told Argus, noting that mills were able to run without interruption during this period.

The largest and most direct impact was on sales and deliveries, but that impact is likely to be short lived as shipments have begun to gradually improve today with conditions expected to be much smoother next week, the mill added.

Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said today in state-controlled media that the situation will be under control in the next 3-4 days but did not offer details on when the curfew would fully be lifted, while the railway ministry secretary Humayun Kabir said the Bangladesh Railway would resume limited passenger train operations beginning tomorrow.

The US State Department still advises against travel to the country and the UK Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel.

Import/export clearing activities were temporarily halted at various port across the country because of the situation, the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) said in state-controlled media.

Activity at the port of Chittagong has remained ongoing but slow, according to market participants.

Dozens of vessels are still situated on the water outside the port of Chittagong, vessel tracking data shows.

Three deep-sea ferrous scrap bulk vessels — Ken Ei, DL Lavender, and Liberty C — also remain outside the port. But DL Lavender, a vessel from the US, has repositioned itself outside the dock.

The FBCCI has appealed to the government to waive any port or shipping charges for importers and exporters and has sought for charges not to be imposed until 15 days after operations at ports have normalized.

By Brad MacAulay and Corey Aunger