At last the Ctg port is looking less jam-packed
The Chattogram port is finally drifting away from a standstill as the seemingly never-ending congestion both at the terminals and the outer anchorage is clearing up following a string of measures taken by the port authority and the government.
Steps that yielded results include the National Board of Revenue's temporary permission for shifting imported goods to inland container depots (ICDs) and a complete waiver of container store rent for a week.
As the waiver of container storage fees expired yesterday, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association appealed to the Chittagong Port Authority to extend the time, but the CPA was yet to make a decision.
Though delivery of containers gained momentum to some extent and some import containers could 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 in the last 10 days, according to data from the port authority and 19 private ICDs.
The number 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 highest since the government-announced holidays started on March 26.
Currently, more than 4,000 TEUs of import containers can be unloaded every day allowing vessels to complete loading and unloading goods at a faster rate, 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 number 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 supply of some commodities like ginger has increased and their prices also came down due to the faster delivery of the import containers in the last few days, he said.
However, the number of import containers lying on the yards is still much more than the capacity of the port: a total of 44,920 TEUs of containers piled up until yesterday against the capacity of 39,518 TEUs.
"Though a good 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 1,700 TEUs a day against the average daily delivery of 3,500 TEUs to 4,000 TEUs under normal circumstances.
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