The Chattogram port posted a 5.36 percent year-on-year growth in container handling in the just concluded 2023-24 fiscal year.

The port handled 31.69 lakh twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers, including import, export and empty ones in FY24, up from 30.07 lakh TEUs in the previous fiscal, according to data provided by the Chattogram Port Authority (CPA).

The figure was prepared through calculating the number of containers loaded and unloaded at the main jetties of the port, Pangaon Inland Container Terminal at Keraniganj and Kamalapur Inland Container Depot in Dhaka, CPA Secretary Md Omar Faruk said.

The overall rise in handling of cargo and container in the concluded fiscal year is a testimony to the rise of foreign trade in Bangladesh, overcoming the downtrend caused by the global economic turmoil amidst the Russia-Ukraine war, he said.

Different types of commercial items, commodity, machineries, chemical products and raw materials of all industries but cement and ceramics sector are imported through containers while export goods are solely carried through containers.

Overall handling of cargo -- containerised and bulk -- by the port experienced 4.18 percent year-on-year growth in 2023-24 fiscal year.

The port handled a record high 12.32 crore tonnes of cargo in 2023-24, up from 11.83 crore tonnes in the previous year.

The authority is on continuous efforts for enhancing the port's capacity and efficiency by expanding yard and equipment facilities, the CPA secretary said.

The port's container storage capacity was increased and different new equipment are also being added, he said.

The port saw 7.62 percent year-on-year drop in container handling in 2022-23 fiscal year while it handled a record highest amount of 32.55 lakh TEUs in 2021-22 fiscal year, posting a 5.11 percent year-on-year growth.

Container handling grew 3.1 percent year-on-year in 2020-21 while the amount of growth was 2.92 percent in 2019-20 and 3.9 percent in 2018-19.

Total volume of containers handled in 2020-21 was 30.97 lakh TEUs when the amount was 30.04 lakh TEUs in 2019-20 and 29.19 lakh TEUs in 2018-19.