Many import consignments of the garment and pharmaceutical sectors are stuck at Dubai and Singapore airports because of the space crisis in Dhaka's cargo village and the lack of cold room facilities for pharmaceutical raw materials after the fire incident.

Currently, the imported goods are stored in a small space of the export cargo section at the cargo village area at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA), which cannot handle 550 tonnes of cargo a day that normally arrive. So, the importers are delaying the import of goods and many consignments are stuck at Dubai and Singapore airports.

However, the government has created a facility to release the goods on the same day of import, which is very helpful for manufacturers, said Inamul Haq Khan, senior vice-president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).

The Biman authority also asked the importers to take delivery of the goods that could be salvaged from the fire incident as soon as possible.

As of yesterday, 1,300 companies registered their names in the BGMEA launched a temporary web portal claiming damage of $7.5 million. The final tally will be more as not everyone has registered yet.

The severity of the fire incident will be much higher as the import consignments of many companies were burnt out and they will face a two-month delay in production as they will have to re-import those goods, he said.

Subsequently, some of the international clothing retailers and brands are slashing down the work orders.

Mijanur Rahman, managing director of Fabrica Knit Composite, who suffered damages worth $300,000 of garment accessories, said one of his buyers reduced his work orders to 26,000 pieces of T-shirts from the previously confirmed 80,000 pieces taking into account the reduced inventory of raw materials.

Normalcy in the pharmaceutical sector's import activities will not return before Thursday at the earliest, said Md Zakir Hossain, secretary general of the Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (BAPI).

Most of the sector's imports such as vaccine, insulin and sensitive medicine items need to be stored under minus temperature or a certain degree of temperature range. But the cold storage facilities at the cargo village were burned down in the fire.

So, many companies are delaying the import of pharmaceutical raw materials because of the space crisis in the cargo village following the fire incident.

Since there is a crisis of space, the importers, including those who bring in pharmaceutical raw material, are requested to take delivery of goods on the same day of import, said Md. Firoz Salahuddin, manager import operations of the HSIA Cargo Village.

Bangladesh's pharmaceutical sector may face an economic impact of about Tk 4,000 crore due to the destruction of raw materials in the fire at the cargo village of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Saturday.

Although the incident is not expected to immediately affect the supply chain or medicine prices, pharma sector leaders warned that disruptions may occur if the damaged import system for raw materials is not restored promptly.

At a press conference yesterday, BAPI leaders presented a 14-point set of demands, which include reimbursement of customs duties, taxes and VAT already paid by importers for the destroyed goods; waiver of bank charges and interest related to affected letters of credit; and cancellation of any charges or penalties imposed against the Bill of Entry for the damaged items.

In his written speech, BAPI Secretary General Hossain said raw materials worth approximately Tk 200 crore belonging to the country's top 45 pharmaceutical firms have been damaged in the fire.

"We believe the total economic impact will be even greater once other companies report their losses," he said, adding that the burnt materials included essential raw ingredients used in the production of antibiotics, vaccines, hormones, diabetes medications and cancer drugs.

Additionally, several spare parts and machinery have been damaged, and re-importing them for pharmaceutical manufacturing will be time-consuming.

As a result, the production processes are also expected to be affected.

A significant portion of the burnt goods consisted of items approved by the Narcotics Division and re-importing these products would be both complex and time-consuming as they require multiple layers of approval.

"All these materials are essential for producing each finished product. Therefore, the loss of a single raw material can jeopardise the entire production of a finished item. Naturally, we estimate that the economic impact could exceed Tk 4,000 crore."

The medicine supply chain is not expected to be affected for now, and there will be no increase in medicine prices, he added.

Problems may arise after a month if the system is not restored, said Muhammad Halimuzzaman, treasurer of BAPI.

Without a functioning cold chain, forwarding agents will be unable to transport specific raw materials that require strict temperature control, he added.

Pharmaceutical companies typically maintain raw material stock for four to six months, while those imported by air generally cover two to three months of supply, said M Mosaddek Hossain, senior vice president of BAPI.

Syed S Kaiser Kabir, vice-president of BAPI, described the fire at the cargo village as "a major governance failure", attributing the issue not only to the current government but also to previous administrations.

"The absence of a firefighting system at the cargo village is totally unacceptable," he said, calling for the establishment of an international-standard warehouse at the airport.

Approximately 90 percent of the raw materials used in the pharmaceutical industry are imported from China, India, and various European countries, BAPI said.

In addition to raw materials, the sector also relies on imported packaging materials, capital machinery and spare parts.

Urgent and high-value raw materials are typically transported by air, while bulk volumes are mostly brought in via sea routes.