Despite miniature improvements, container congestion continues to disrupt operations at Chattogram Port, with an surprisingly high series of containers crowding its yard and non-public inland container depots (ICDs), following the recent political upheavals and devastating floods.
Port officers relate the congestion is delaying the coping with of import and export cargo.
Though vessel waiting times on the port hang improved, shedding from nine days to four-five days on the outer anchorage, stress on the port’s yards and depots remains high, they are saying.
Fixed with the officers, on the least 5,000 TEUs (Twenty-foot The same Gadgets) of import containers hang to be cleared to restore regular operations of the port. Likewise, the depots must minimize their load by 5,000 TEUs of export containers.
Plump normalisation is anticipated to rob extra than 15 days, they added.
Md Omar Faruk, secretary of the Chattogram Port Authority (CPA), mentioned the sphere is step by step making improvements to as importers continue to win their containers.
Container potential and congestion phases
The Chattogram Port has a container potential of Fifty three,518 TEUs. For comfy operations, port authorities purpose to put the series of containers between 30,000 TEUs and 32,000 TEUs. As of 15 July, the port had 32,957 TEUs, which became as soon as realistic manageable, according to the CPA.
Due to disruptions, including political unrest and the flood-related shutdown of the Dhaka-Chattogram toll road and rail connections, container deliveries were halted, causing an accumulation of over 44,000 TEUs in the port yard by mid-August.
By 6 September, the number reduced to 40,180 TEUs, but officers accumulated get this unsatisfactory.
They warn that unless deliveries exceed the charge of incoming import containers, the congestion will persist.
On 6 September, 4,315 TEUs were delivered, and 4,067 TEUs were cleared the day sooner than. The port in total delivers 3,500 to 4,000 TEUs day to day.
Decline in container coping with and vessels arrivals
The total quantity of container coping with on the port has also declined in recent months.
In June 2024, 328 vessels arrived on the Chattogram Port, followed by 315 vessels in July and 304 in August. By comparison, the ideally suited series of vessel arrivals this year became as soon as in April, with 329 vessels.
Container coping with has equally reduced, with 319,193 TEUs cleared in Might maybe well maybe honest 2024, followed by a decline to 274,773 TEUs in June, 271,335 TEUs in July, and 271,869 TEUs in August.
The port handles both elephantine and empty containers arriving and departing on vessels. This total coping with entails import and export containers, as successfully as empties, from the Chattogram Port Yard, Dhaka ICD, and Pangaon ICD.
Tension on export cargo at depots
Meanwhile, export cargo from plenty of facets of the nation is saved at 19 depots in Chattogram sooner than shipment.
These depots in total tackle around 8,000 TEUs day to day, but this prefer doubled in August. On the opposite hand, traffic became as soon as halted for a week as a result of flooding, causing the series of export containers on the depots to tumble support to eight,000 TEUs by the cease of August.
Ruhul Amin Shikder, secretary regular of the Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Affiliation (Bicda), the depots are now coping with around 13,000 TEUs of export cargo, which is around 5,000 TEUs extra than the identical outdated.
“On the opposite hand, shipments from the depot to the port are proceeding in most cases, with extra than 2,000 TEUs of export cargo being loaded onto container ships day to day,” he told TBS.
As of 4 September, there were 48,500 TEUs of empty containers and 7,315 TEUs of imported containers on the depots, he added.
Vessel congestion eases, but delays persist
For the past month and a half, vessels on the Chattogram Port had been going via extended delays, spending extra than five days on the quay as a replace of the identical outdated two to a pair days for unloading and loading.
The prolong has been prompted by an absence of dwelling in the port yard, leading to a backlog of vessels on the outer anchorage. At its peak, on the least 18 vessels were waiting to enter the quay.
Muntasir Rubayat, assistant vice chairman of GBX Logistics, mentioned container congestion on the port reached serious phases after 19 July.
He mentioned reduced storage dwelling in the yard had slowed the loading of containers onto ships, vastly extending their time on the quay.
“Vessels that in total docked internal two days after arriving on the outer anchorage were forced to support up to nine days throughout this length,” he added.
Fixed with the Chattogram Port berthing document on 5 September, there were seven container vessels accumulated waiting outside the quay, realistic one of which had been anchored since 31 August and berthed ideally suited on 6 September, after a five-day wait.
On the opposite hand, port officers hang mentioned that the waiting time for ships is now returning to regular phases.
