Ctg port operations speed up as congestion eases

Container ships are being able to berth and load and unload cargo faster upon arrival at the Chattogram port nowadays, thanks to the gradual easing of an acute congestion that had been created in July and August.

Vessels' average waiting time to get berths had gone up to six to eight days in August due to a countrywide political unrest since mid-July and other disruptions.

It had sharply dropped to less than two days in October.

And in the first 20 days of this month, over half the vessels were able to berth within a day of their arrival. Vessels are getting berths at the shortest time, mainly due to a decrease in the time ships had to dwell at the jetties.

In July and August, the average dwelling time of vessels at the jetties was well over three days, and in many cases reached up to four days.

In October, after berthing at the port's jetties, container ships on an average took 2.48 days to unload import-laden containers and load export-laden ones before departing.

The port users said there was an acute container congestion while the number of cargoes being delivered daily was low.

The situation gradually eased over the last couple of months, with significant improvements witnessed in both the waiting time for berths and dwelling time at jetties, they added.

Daily deliveries and transfers of containers from the port's yards were badly disrupted due to a student movement, internet blackout and political unrest from mid-July to early August, followed by a weeklong suspension of vehicular movement due to floods in late August.

It caused over 45,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers to pile up at the port, occupying 85 percent of its yard capacity. It has recently come down to 34,000 TEUs.

A senior official of a foreign shipping line said apart from the political turmoil, bad weather, mainly incessant monsoon rains, also hampered daily cargo deliveries since a good number of import cargo are delivered on being taken out of containers at the port yards.

Disruption in daily deliveries led to the piling up of containers at the yards and delayed loading and unloading activities, increasing ships' dwelling time at the jetties and eventually creating a queue of vessels awaiting berths, he said.

With improvement in law and order as well as weather, business activities gradually gained momentum, which expedited the deliveries and thus the yard congestion has slowly been eased in the last few months, he said.

Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) Chairman Rear Admiral SM Moniruzzaman said at a press briefing that the authorities managed to ease the congestion through continuous and systematic innovative efforts.

They tried to create more space in the yards by speeding up the auctioning of old containers, he said.

He said they already proposed to the National Board of Revenue to allow all "full container load" containers to be shifted directly to private inland container depots (ICDs) for delivery in order to free up space at the port yards.

"Full container load" refers to goods from a single shipper occupying the entire container.

Two of the port's terminals, New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) and Chittagong Container Terminal (CCT), which have six jetties, handle 65 percent of the containers passing through the port.

The benchmark of ships' dwelling time at these two terminals is 48 hours.

Nazmul Hoque, executive director of Saif Powertec Ltd, which operates the two terminals, informed that they handled 70 vessels at the CCT and NCT in July.

Of them, 37 percent were able to depart within 48 hours while 63 percent stayed for over 72 hours, he said.

In August, the ratio was worse.

Out of a total of 67 ships, 31 percent set sail in 48 hours while 69 percent needed to stay at jetties for over 72 hours, he said.

In October, the ratio totally changed, with 70 percent of ships completing their works by 48 hours while the remaining 30 percent needed more than 72 hours.