Slow in Chittagong port performance

The turnaround time for container laden ships at Chittagong Port’s jetties and outer anchorage has declined sharply, the lowest in four and a half years.

A huge number of containers have piled up at the port, indicating a slump in its performance capability. The pile of containers covered around 94% space of the port on Friday, said Hadi Hossain, a former member of Chittagong Port Authority.

If any port is covered by 70% of piled up containers, problems arise in the shipment work of the port, Hadi told Prothom Alo. The infrastructure facilities of the port are not increasing the way the number of containers is rising every day, he added.

There is lack of equipment in the port. Besides, jetties of New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) are yet to be added to the existing ones. The Chittagong-Pangaon waterway is yet to start operations properly, Hadi added.

For the last couple of months, the premier seaport has been experiencing low turnaround time, which is the time a ship takes to arrive and leave a port after offloading goods.

In July 2015, the turnaround time for container vessels rose to 5.50 days from 3.03 days in January this year, according to Chittagong Port statistics. The turnaround time for all types of ships is a key indicator to measure a port’s performance.

Nasir Uddin Chowdhury, former vice president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said that port activities were proceeding at a snail’s pace. “This has had a negative impact on export-oriented garments industry sector. I hope port authority will take quick measures to resolve port’s present impasse,” he said.

Member (admin and planning) of the Chittagong Port Authority, M Zafar Alam, however, told Prothom Alo, “The capacity of the port has not decreased; the container releasing rate has increased by 15%. It could be a challenge to sustain the increasing rate. To do so, we have planned to purchase equipment. Two more jetties of NCT are going to be operational soon. I hope the overall situation will progress further shortly.”

Overall monitoring is going on to oversee the imbalance of the port and records have been made every month in container shipment, Zafar claimed.

Ahsanul Haque Chowdhury, senior vice president of Shipping Agents’ Association, told Prothom Alo that the cost of releasing containers increases if the ships turnaround time increases.

If a ship spends a day in the port, it costs around Tk 10,000 US dollars, Ahsanul Haque added.