The acute shortage of 40ft high-cube containers has been hampering the shipment of export cargo from Bangladesh, with MSC and Hapag Lloyd among the major liner operators trying to reposition equipment from nearby ports.

The situation has been exacerbated by the congestion at Singapore, where hundreds of Bangladesh-bound containers are stranded, due to berthing delays, stakeholders claimed.

Also, a significant numbers of 40ft containers are stuck at Chittagong port, as importers are not collecting their boxes because of the Eid holidays.

Ruhul Amin Sikder, secretary general of the Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association, said the depots had experienced carrier-wide shortages of 40ft boxes.