Ctg 70th busiest port worldwide
Chittagong Port is the 70th busiest container port in the world after it moved one notch up in this year's ranking of the Lloyd's List.
The 2018 edition of Lloyd's List's One Hundred Container Ports was published on Saturday and was based on the total throughput of containers in 2017.
The country's premier port handled 25,66,597 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers last year, up 9.36 percent from 23,46,909 TEUs in 2016.
The port was ranked 71st, 76th and 87th in the three previous editions.
Chittagong Port handles 98 percent of the total containerised goods transport in the country.
The increase in the country's foreign trade in recent years contributed to the higher growth in container handling through the port, said port users.
They underscored the importance of infrastructure development and logistics supply of the port to cope up with the increasing container transport. Chinese port Shanghai retained the top post. It has been maintaining the pole position since 2010.
The Port of Singapore and Chinese ports Shenzhen and Ningbo-Zhoushan held on their respective second, third and fourth position.
A total of 21 Chinese ports, eight US ports and seven Spanish ports made it to the ranking.
India's Jawaharlal Nehru Port secured 28th position, up from 33rd spot previously. Mundra was ranked 35th compared to 45th in the last year's ranking while Chennai dropped to 99th from last year's 93rd position.
Chittagong Port is ahead of Pakistan's Port of Karachi, which was ranked 83rd.
Mahbubul Alam, president of the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the port has moved up one spot but it could have been much better if the required equipment like quay gantry cranes could be installed much earlier and the port's infrastructure development could be fast-tracked.
“The country's export and import is on the rise, so there is no alternative to enhancing Chittagong Port's capacity and efficiency.” He said due to a lack of enough jetties and yards the port very often experiences container and vessel congestion causing sufferings to the businesses.
Alam called for speedy implementation of the projects such as Patenga Container Terminal, Laldia Multipurpose Terminal and the Bay Terminal.
Md Zafar Alam, member for administration and planning at the Chittagong Port Authority, said three new quay gantry cranes that arrived last week would be made operational this week.
As a result, container handling would be expedited, he said.
