Cargo delivery expands, bare box congestion continues

Chittagong: Congestion of containers is still persisting at the country's main seaport at Chittagong, though the delivery of import-cargoes has eased significantly.

Officials at the Chittagong Port said congestion of containers is still continuing due to the presence of a large number of empty containers.

The Chittagong Customs Office is being kept open on Saturdays. The Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) has also taken a series of measures including the waiving of penal charges.

The measures have contributed a lot to ease the congestion of containers of import cargoes at the port yards. Importers have been taking speedy delivery of their cargoes from the port yards over the last few days.

'We've now 9,285 twenty equivalent units (TEUs) of import containers against the port's normal import container capacity of 9,466 TEUs. But the presence of a large number of empty containers at the different port yards has worsened the congestion,' a senior port official said.

According to CPA figures, 4,558 TEUs of empty containers have been lying on the port yards.

The port stored 16,440 TEUs of all kinds as on Friday afternoon against its capacity of 12800 TEUs, the CPA sources said.

'We're continuing dialogues with the private inland container depots (ICDs) located at the port city for speedy removal of empty containers from the port yards,' a traffic official at the Chittagong Port said.

There are 13 private ICDs in the port city of Chittagong. The ICDs deal export items and their contribution to the stuffing of export items is more than 80 per cent.

In the meantime, the pressures of container vessels has also been eased as the number of waiting vessels at both the port's berthing spaces and the outer anchorage has fallen.

Port officials said as many as seven container vessels were berthed until Friday afternoon. Two such vessels were expected to sail by Friday and two more are expected to take berth on the day.

Port officials also said only seven container-laden vessels remained at the outer anchorage to berth at the port yards.