First mother vessel reaches Ctg port from Korea

A new way for container transport was introduced from Korea to Chittagong port on Friday, which would help traders to cut the travel time by a half.

For the first time, a mother vessel carried containers from Korea to the Bangladeshi port in 14 days.

It used to take around 30 days, as the containers had to wait in Singapore port to be unloaded and to reach Chittagong through feeder vessels.

In its maiden voyage, the mother vessel Sentosa Trader of Hyundai Merchant Marine Company Ltd set sail from Korea's Bussan port, said Md Jahid Hossain, manager for sales at Ocean International Ltd, the local agent of the vessel.

The vessel touched Ningbo and Shanghai ports of China and reach Singapore port in 10 days, he said. “It reached the Chittagong port from Singapore in just four days as it carried the containers itself without waiting for any other feeder vessel.”

The vessel came from Korea with 783 containers, said Golam Sarwar, director for traffic at Chittagong Port.

“It was a longtime demand of the port users to introduce this type of container transport, which would save time for both the importers and the exporters.”