Containers pile up at Ctg port as shutdowns linger

The delivery of shipments has slowed to a crawl at Chittagong port as recurrent shutdowns are affecting loading and unloading. Photo:Anurup Kanti Das

An acute congestion of containers has been disrupting loading and unloading at Chittagong port for the past few weeks, due to frequent hartals, bad weather and rising imports.
As of Thursday, 28,244 TEUs (twenty-foot-equivalent units) of containers have been lying at different yards, occupying nearly 88 percent of the port's storage capacity, according to Chittagong Port Authority.
The CPA took steps to ensure safe transportation of goods and delivery, but the 32 hartals since January have adversely impacted the operations.
The port delivered around 200 to 400 TEUs of containers on hartal days each in February and March, down from 1,500 and 2,000 TEUs on a regular day.
The port failed to complete the construction of the New Mooring Container Terminal even five years after its start. With the terminal on full stream, it will add a capacity of 1.5 million TEUs.
The stay time of foreign vessels at the port is being extended by at least one day, which will delay shipments and deepen financial losses, shipping executives said.
MV Wehr Rissen, a ship owned by Pacific International Lines, left the port one day after its scheduled departure, said Captain Rafiqul Islam, country director of the Singapore-based shipping firm.
“It took nearly three days to unload 902 TEUs of containers. Usually, it takes only 24 hours.”
Problems have also been created in linking the export containers with scheduled connections at the Singapore port.
Many export-bound containers bound for Europe and the US failed to reach their mother vessels in Singapore, as the feeder vessels left Chittagong late, said Nasir Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury, first vice president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
CPA Chairman Rear Admiral Mohammad Nizamuddin Ahmed, however, claimed the situation was under control.
He mainly blamed the congestion on a huge stockpile of empty containers and the increase in imports.
On May 16, the port has increased the penal rents four times on empty containers to clear more space, Ahmed said.
The authorities plan to store an additional 3,500 TEUs at the backyard of the New Mooring Container Terminal.