At last the Ctg port is looking less jam-packed
The Chattogram port is finally drifting from a standstill as the seemingly never-ending congestion both at the terminals and the outer anchorage is unscrambling carrying out a string of measures taken by the port authority and the government.
Steps that yielded results include the National Board of Revenue's non permanent permission for shifting imported goods to inland container depots (ICDs) and a complete waiver of container store rent for weekly.
As the waiver of container storage costs expired yesterday, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association appealed to the Chittagong Port Authority to increase the time, however the CPA was yet to generate a decision.
Though delivery of containers gained momentum somewhat and some import containers could possibly be shifted to private ICDs, port officials think the rate of container delivery from the port yards could have been faster.
A total of 15,038 TEUs (twenty-feet equivalent units) of import containers were transferred from the port to the off-docks within the last 10 days, according to data from the port authority and 19 private ICDs.
The amount of total containers lying at the port yards was 47,441 TEUs until yesterday against the port's capacity of 49,018 TEUs.
Because of the freed up space in the port yards, the number of containers loaded and unloaded each day has doubled to 8,420 TEUs on Saturday, the best because the government-announced holidays started on March 26.
Currently, more than 4,000 TEUs of import containers could be unloaded each day allowing vessels to complete loading and unloading goods quicker, which helps reduce the vessels' stay time at jetties.
Vessels' berth occupancy time that had reached 6-7 days last month came down to 3-4 days now, port officials said. The vessels' waiting time at the outer anchorage for getting berths has also dropped to 13-14 days from 16-18 days.
Subsequently, the amount of vessels waiting at the outer anchorage declined to 24 yesterday though the number hovered around 36 before the steps were taken.
Mahbubul Alam, president of the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), expressed satisfaction over the improvement of the port's performance.
The way to obtain some commodities like ginger has increased and their prices also came down as a result of faster delivery of the import containers in the last few days, he said.
However, the quantity of import containers lying on the yards is still much more compared to the capacity of the port: a complete of 44,920 TEUs of containers piled up until yesterday against the capability of 39,518 TEUs.
"Though a great number of import containers were shifted to the private ICDs, the delivery of goods from the port yards is yet to speed up to the expected level," said Md Zafar Alam, member (admin and planning) of the CPA.
Direct delivery from the port still remains at 1,600 TEUs to 1 1,700 TEUs a day against the common daily delivery of 3,500 TEUs to 4,000 TEUs under normal circumstances.
