C T Online Desk: The addition of a number of equipment, including four gantry cranes, to the existing ones at Chattogram port has enhanced the port’s efficiency in handling containers to and from vessels, significantly reducing ship waiting time and berthing time.
In fiscal 2021-22, a container ship had to wait 2.24 days at the outer anchorage to arrive at the port jetty with imported goods. And after berthing at the jetty, it took another three days to unload the import goods from and load export goods into the ship.
Now ships can berth at the jetty as soon as they arrive at the outer anchorage, while it takes just two days for unloading the import containers and loading export goods after a ship berths at the jetty.
According to information obtained from the port authorities, in the past 15 days, only one container ship was waiting at the outer anchorage for berthing at the port on three days each. For the remaining 12 days, all container ships could directly go to the designated jetties to unload import goods. During the same period, a bulk cargo or open cargo vessel had to wait at the outer anchorage on four days each.
On Monday afternoon, the Chittagong Port Authority told The New Nation that there is no ship waiting at the outer anchorage and that ships are getting berthing on arrival.
Md Omar Faruk, secretary of the Chittagong Port Authority, told media that the addition of the new equipment has given an impetus to the yard management system at the port alongside boosting its container handling capacity. The container storage space in the port yard has increased from 49,018 TEUs to 53,518 TEUs, he added.
While the number of ships arriving at the port is still normal, the volume of imports has marked a decline in recent times for various reasons, including the Russia-Ukraine war, dollar shortages, a hike in LC margin, and a tightening of imports of luxury goods.
Data provided by Chattogram port show that in June this year, the country’s premier seaport handled about 1.30 lakh TEUs of containers, which came down to less than 1.14 lakh in July.
But there has been an increase in the number of ships arriving at the port, with 342 vessels reaching the port in July as compared to 338 a month earlier.
In June and July last year, the number of ships arriving at the port was 305 and 291, respectively.
In 2021, 4,231 ships arrived at Chattogram port and the number of containers handled stood at 32,55,358.
