Ctg port slips 9 notches to 67th in list of world's busiest ports
The Chattogram port has slipped nine notches in 2020 to rank 67th in terms of annual throughput of containers among 100 top busiest ports across the world, according to the 2021 edition of Lloyd's List One Hundred Ports.
The port experienced the fall in the ranking after advancing in the list for the last seven years.
The latest edition of the world's oldest journal on port and shipping was published this evening tallying up the annual container throughput figures of the world's elite port facilities of the last calendar year.
Container throughput decreased globally in 2020 due to Covid-19 pandemic-led recession followed by congestions and disruption in supply chain, according to the journal.
2020 witnessed the first fall in combined throughput figures for the world's largest container ports since the impact of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.
Total volume of container transport in 2020 was just over 632.2 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), which is 0.7 per cent down from the previous year.
According to the Lloyd's List, Chattogram port handled a total of 2,839,977 TEUs of containers in 2020, down by 8 per cent from 3,088,187 TEUs in the previous year.
Such decrease in container throughput volume forced the port to lose the previous year's rank of 58th.
The Bangladeshi port ranked 64th in 2018, 70th in 2017, 71st, 76th and 87th in 2016, 2015 and 2014 respectively.
The journal stated, "Bangladesh's principal port reports a significant dip in traffic as the coronavirus outbreak hits its substantial trade of ready-made garments".
The journal termed the year 2020 as 'arguably the most challenging year the industry has ever experienced'.
Mahbubul Alam, president of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the country's business activities as well as foreign trade were badly hit last year due to the pandemic and this could be the reason for the port to rank lower in Lloyd's List.
Chattogram port handles 98 per cent of the total container throughput in the country while Mongla handles the rest.