TDS desk:

The severe backlog that the Chattogram port has been facing following the recent anti-discrimination student movement has started showing signs of improvement, with waiting times for vessels at the outer anchorage reducing significantly.

During the peak of the crisis in early August, ships waited as long as nine days to enter the jetty.

However, as per recent reports, the waiting time has dropped to around five days. Port officials are optimistic that this trend will continue, further reducing the waiting time in the coming days.

According to data from the Chittagong Port Authority, the number of vessels waiting at the port’s outer anchorage has significantly decreased. In early August, over 18 ships were queued up at the outer anchorage, but by 1 September, this number had halved to nine.

Omar Faruk, secretary of the Chittagong Port Authority, told that, “The unusually long waiting times are gradually decreasing. The primary cause of the delays was container congestion, which extended the time required for ships to unload their cargo.”

He hoped the waiting times would soon drop to two to three days.

The delays at Chattogram port primarily stemmed from the lack of space to store containers, which extended vessel unloading time.

The discharge of goods at the port is conducted in two main ways – container vessels are unloaded at the jetty, and bulk carriers discharge their cargo both at the jetty and the outer anchorage to lighter ships. Oil tankers use the port’s Dolphin Oil Jetty to unload oil.

Regarding the delays, Muntasir Rubayat, assistant vice president of GBX Logistics, said container congestion at the port had reached abnormal levels after 19 July.

He explained that the reduced storage space in the yard hindered the loading of containers onto ships, extending the time ships spent at the jetty from the usual two days to more than five days.

These delays came with hefty financial costs. Depending on the size of a vessel, idling costs range from $12,000 to $20,000 per day. Consequently, shipping companies likely incurred additional costs of about $108,000 to $180,000 due to the 9-day waiting period at the outer anchorage.

These extra costs are typically passed on to consumers, increasing the price of goods.

Syed Mohammad Arif, chairman of the Bangladesh Shipping Agents Association, said the reduced waiting time is a positive development for import and export trade. He emphasised the importance of maintaining efficient port operations to prevent future congestion and avoid negative impacts on trade.

Chattogram Port plays a crucial role in Bangladesh’s trade, handling 92% of the country’s total import and export activities. It has a container storage capacity of 53,518 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), but for smooth operations, the port typically handles 32,000 to 35,000 TEUs.

However, during the period of congestion, this number exceeded 44,000 TEUs. On 2 September, the port yard held 38,798 TEUs, indicating a gradual return to normal conditions.

Port data shows that about 45% of the ships bringing goods to Chattogram are container vessels, 45% are bulk carriers, and 10% are tankers.

Of the bulk cargo, 75% is unloaded at the outer anchorage through lighter vessels, and the remaining 25% at the jetty.