Interport Maritime published an overview of Bangladesh’s main imports and exports, its ports, claims development, as well as guidelines for avoiding and mitigating claims.
Claims development in Bangladesh
#1 Liquid Cargo Claims: For the past few decades, almost every vessel calling at Chittagong Port laden with liquid cargo faced paper cargo shortage claims. However, Mohiuddin Abdul Kadir (Capt. MAK) filed a writ against the Chittagong Customs Authority for their unlawful penalty demand for shortage based on shore tanks rather than based on ship Ullage findings.
As such, the customs penalty imposed on basis of shore tank survey has been declared unlawful and the Supreme Court confirmed that the Customs Authority can only impose penalty on shortage in ship Ullage survey.
It is now well established that Ullage survey is the appropriate method to ascertain cargo quantity in case of liquid cargo.
#2 Wet damage to Raw Sugar: There are a number of cases in which cargo holds were entirely flooded with sea water that remained there for several months, and the sugar still retained most of its commercial value. If the wetting is very recent, cargo handling related difficulties might be more likely to give rise to a problem than any actual cargo damage.
The consignees in Bangladesh usually raise claim their claim for full value of the wet cargo remaining on board. In most of the cases, we repudiated the claim on the basis of the scientist’s opinion and urged the receivers to take delivery of the cargo and allow the vessel’s earliest sailing upon completion of discharge.
Best practices for handling such claims:
- Proactive handling of the case by Correspondent claims handler as time is of essence.
- Appointment of competent marine surveyor for WP Joint Survey.
- Collection of cargo samples.
- Obtaining opinion of scientist regarding salvage value/use.
- Repudiation of consignee’s claim.
- Appointment of competent maritime lawyer for dealing with the difficult receivers/claimants.
#3 Navigational Issues/Collision & Contact Incidents: Recently, there has been some positive developments in the marine claims trend in Bangladesh with regards to Collision and Contact incidents. For improving the navigational safety at the Chittagong Port outer anchorage, the Chittagong Port Authority issued Circular No. 46/2019 on 01.10.2019 declaring permissible draft at the three anchorages Alpha, Bravo & Charlie and passed some directives regarding making stopovers at the three anchorages.
As a result of the above directives by CPA, awareness regarding navigational issues among the stakeholders have increased, leading to greater discipline at the anchorage and contributing to fewer collisions and dragging incidents in the recent years.
EXPLORE MORE AT Interport’S overview
Appreciate the right actions taken by the Capt. Kadir. We like to see similar actions taken by others to uphold the good name of the country. We like to see Bangladesh is corruption free. Three cheers for Capt. Kadir.