The Chittagong port lately has been experiencing a heavy rush of ships laden with imports, forcing the relevant authorities to deny the berthing facility to many ships, said vessel operators who are counting losses.
They told the FE Wednesday that both container and non-container carriers had faced delays ranging from two to ten days at the seaport over the past few weeks.
In a double jeopardy, the congestion of ships, a problem that the port authorities would not admit, is causing losses to both the vessel operators and consignees who import the cargoes for business purposes or uses.
Berthing papers seen by this correspondent show a number of 'no berth' edicts given almost every day over the past four days.
The berthing committee has allowed eight vessels a much-sought-after mooring for today (Thursday) and denied six others for the day though they were ready to get in, according to the berthing permits.
Likewise, the committee allowed five vessels and denied nine others the berthing permission yesterday (Wednesday).
A vessel carrying break bulk cargoes named Top Sair with nearly 31,000 tonnes of billet has been in wait since June 07. No room for it also today (Thursday).
Break bulk cargo is non-containerized and is usually transported as individual pieces due to cargo often being oversized and overweight, meaning freight containers cannot accommodate such cargo.
Cargoes include goods such as construction equipment, oil and gas equipment, windmills, yachts, steel and the like.
Another vessel named Dvadesetprvi Maj also has been in the queue since June 11.
Sahed Sarwar, executive director Tokyo-based K Line, told the FE that they had complained about it to the port authority almost every day, but to no or little effect.
"We're talking about the worse situation every day," Mr Sarwar said.
Port officials said there was a rush of a large number of vessels before the national budget announcement and this was one of key reasons for this 'unwanted' situation.
According to port statistics, the seaport has been heaving with huge imports in recent weeks-and there was a return of the congestion in the country's commercial lifeline.
They said the port might handle more than 190,000 containers this month following a surge in imports-up around 50,000 containers.
The port usually handles 140,000 containers on average with annual 1.7 million 20-foot-equivalent units (TEUS).
Ships call at the country's main seaport more than 2,500 times annually.
Captain AS Chowdhury, country head of Sea Consortium, a Singapore-based feeder-vessel operator, said they had been incurring huge financial losses following the delays.
However, he said the port is now allowing higher draught to combat the growing volume of imports.
"To my mind, actually we need a raise in our capacity more to face this type of situation," he said.
jasimharoon@yahoo.com
