The government has fixed new freight rates for Pangaon-Chittagong route for each 20-feet container - US$220 for loaded ones and $110 for empty ones - to attract private ship owners to ply their vessels on this alternative shipping route, officials said.
The new freight rates, set for next six months, will come into effect from mid-October, they added.
Presently, the rate for a loaded container is $150 and $75 for an empty one. The Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) set the rates during the inauguration of Pangaon Inland Container Terminal (ICT) in November 2013.
Until now no export container was shipped from Pangaon ICT, as the users are reluctant due to dearth of vessels. But some 1,614 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of import containers came from Chittagong Port.
The new freight rates were set recently at a meeting at the Ministry of Shipping (MoS) with Minister Shajahan Khan in the chair.
Before that a committee, headed by MoS additional secretary Nasir Arif Mahmud, was tasked with setting freight charge to and from Pangaon to Chittagong.
A senior MoS official told the FE there were three vessels, owned by CPA, to carry containers on the route. Recently CPA leased out the vessels to a private ICT owner. However, the three vessels will give 20 per cent trips on Pangaon-Chittagong route.
The official said some six to eight vessels, built by private sector, may join the route by December.
Asked, whether the new freight rate is user-friendly or not, the official said: "The previous freight charge was not practical, considering a vessel's operation cost and investment. The new rate is cheaper than cost for carrying same volume of goods by road."
The official, however, admitted that the decision to lease out CPA's three vessels of to a private ICT was not right one.
"Pangaon ICT remains non-operational due to lack of vessels. When the government is trying to make it operational, leasing out the CPA vessels will worsen the situation," he said. When contacted, president of Exporters Association of Bangladesh (EAB) Abdus Salam Murshedy told the FE on Friday traders want their export-import goods reach destination in time.
"Unless there are adequate numbers of vessels on the route, maintaining schedule with mother-vessels won't be possible. Apart from money, we also consider consumption of time while calculating our overall cost."
Mr Murshedy said the new rent is acceptable for carrying a 20-feet container by waterways, compared to the cost for the same by road.
"But I need to know how much time it will consume for reaching Chittagong from Dhaka.
He said if the vessels from Pangaon ICT can go directly to Singapore or Colombo to reach mother-vessels with the containers, less time will be required.
"But, if the containers are unloaded and loaded again to feeder-vessels in Chittagong Port to reach mother-vessels, exporters will suffer a lot in terms of time consumption," he opined.
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