Losses pile up amid port congestion

It took 29 days before bulk carrier Gao Qiang got its turn to offload scrap steel at Chittagong Port on June 22.

 This includes time taken to find enough lighters to lessen its 37,564 tonne-cargo at the outer anchorage in order to attain the draft permissible on the Karnaphauli channel.

The importer, BSRM Group, had to pay over Tk 2 crore as demurrage to the shipping company.

Over Tk 1 crore also had to be paid as demurrage to the 17 lighters which had to wait for berth at the lone jetty in Sadarghat designated for offloading scraps from small vessels.

Importers say such berthing delays had prompted one platform of four shipping companies last month to increase the charge per container on the Singapore-Chittagong route by $150.

Vessels from Singapore now can make one trip per month from two earlier, according to Kline Shipping Executive Director Shahed Sarwar.

Such costs will be adjusted in the final product's price, ultimately affecting the end-users, Chittagong Chamber's President Mahbubul Alam told The Daily Star.

The congestion of vessels waiting to get berth at the port, which serves on a first-come, first-serve basis, has been acute since May.

Previously, bulk vessels had to wait for five to six days while container ships one to two days. Now the average is 20 days or more and 6-12 days respectively. Yesterday there were 11 bulk vessels and 10 container ships waiting at the outer anchorage.

The congestion turned acute with the arrival of a huge volume of seasonal imports centring Ramadan and national budget and reduced operational hours during Ramadan.

It coupled with the disruption to loading and unloading for inclement weather and a three-day shutdown for cyclonic storm Mora.

An accidental damage left two out of the port's four gantry cranes out of order on June 25.

Md Zafar Alam, a member of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA), said they took some remedial steps such as allowing bigger vessels to come at night and increasing the space in the yards by removing containers meant for auction.

Moreover, the government on Wednesday decided to keep the port operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week from next month.

Port users say these are short-term steps and apprehend that the problems would persist. It all comes down to the lack of infrastructure and equipment at the port.

Since 2007, the number of jetties had stayed the same -- six for bulk vessels and 12 for container ships. Meanwhile, the number of containers handled on an average in a year increased from 1 million to 2.4 million last fiscal year.

Berth operators say they need at least 14 gantry cranes, 52 rubber tyred gantry cranes (RTG) and 26 straddle carriers. Apart from gantry cranes, it now has 21 RTGs and 12 straddle carriers. The CPA recently purchased 3 RTGs which are yet to be cleared by customs.

The CPA plans to construct a container terminal in Patenga by 2019. The 600-metre long terminal will have three jetties, yards and rail link, said Alam of the CPA.

Construction of three other projects -- Karnaphuli Container Terminal, Laldia Multipurpose Terminal and Bay Terminal in Patenga -- might be partially complete by 2021, he added.

Chittagong Chamber's Alam however said these projects would take two to five years to complete and more jetties need to be built immediately to cope with the increase in cargo traffic.