Shippers annoyed about extra charges for port congestion

On April 5, OEL Bangladesh, a container vessel, arrived at the outer anchorage of Chattogram port bearing a multitude of import goods, including raw materials for the vital garment industry.

But thanks to the acute container congestion at the port yard, brought on by the countrywide movement control enforced on March 26 to flatten the curve on coronavirus, the vessel had to stay there for 10 days before getting any berth.

The vessel had to stay an additional day at the port jetty for the sluggish pace of discharging the import containers.

This means it took the vessel 25 days as opposed to the 14 days it usually takes for the round trip from Chattogram to Colombo.

As a result, the ship missed another voyage in a single month as it can operate two trips monthly, said Muntasir Rubayat, assistant vice-president of GBX Logistics, the local shipping agent of OEL Bangladesh.

For such additional stays, the vessel operator had to count extra duties amounting to more than $100,000 in chartering cost, bunkering cost and the berth occupancy charge at the port, he said.

The container shipping sector, the integral part of the country's import and export activities, has been passing through hard times since the beginning of the year because of the import slowdown brought on by the coronavirus outbreak in China, the global supplier of raw materials and finished goods alike.

Now, the sector has been receiving further blows for retraction of export cargo for the US and the EU and the container congestion at the Chattogram caused by the countrywide shutdown for the last four weeks.

Many feeder operators had already been forced to cancel weekly voyages of some of their vessels in the last couple of months.

Vessels' waiting time at the outer anchorage has now reached 15 to 16 days since the Chattogram Port Authority (CPA) is not allowing vessels to get a berth on time due to the space shortage for storing imports.

Another vessel, OEL Shasta, arrived at the outer anchorage on April 10. The CPA yesterday said the vessel would not get a berth before April 26.

For the 16 days of idle stay, the vessel operator will have to count around $160,000 as chartering and bunkering costs, said Md Zakirul Islam, deputy manager of Karnaphuly, the local shipping agent of the vessel. 

"If a vessel spends 20 days at Chattogram Port, how will a shipping line survive?" said Ajmir Hossain Chowdhury, assistant general manager of MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company.

The delay prompted the Bangladesh Shipping Agents Association (BSAA) on Monday to write to the shipping secretary, requesting him to review several port charges and tariffs to save shipping companies from huge losses.

The charges include pilotage fees, berth hire charge, quay gantry crane charge, storage charge for empty containers and storage rent for containers at Kamalapur Inland Container Depot in Dhaka.

Owing to the long overstay at the outer anchorage and additional stay at the jetty, vessels are counting the additional operational costs and incurring huge losses by failing to operate trips on time, said BSAA Chairman Ahsanul Huq Chowdhury.

As the vessels are now staying six to seven days at the jetties from the usual three-day, the association called for waiving berth occupancy charges for the overstay and also requested discounts on storage rent for empty containers since they can't be sent on time.

"Such waiver could help shipping lines in this hard time," Chowdhury said.