As only 329 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers could be delivered on Monday, the Chittagong port yard was plagued with some 44,000 TEUs of boxes on Tuesday morning, officials say.
The port has started functioning normally but is getting a smaller number of boxes from inland container depots. Due to factory closure across the country for security reasons for two consecutive days on Monday and Tuesday the depots were getting almost no cargoes to send to the port.
On Monday the port received 2,409 TEUs of containers from vessels while shipped 1,265 TEUs export boxes on the day. Of the outbound boxes, 856 TEUs were from port yard and 409 TEUs came from depots.
Chittagong Port Authority spokesperson Omar Faruk told the FE that he expected some 1,000 TEUs of containers to be delivered on Tuesday.
"Operation inside the port is going on normally," he told the FE over telephone.
Ruhul Amin Sikder, secretary general, Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association (BICDA), told the FE that as factories remained closed, the depots were not getting cargo-laden trucks. "Now we are sending previously stuffed containers to the port," he said.
Sikder, however, said the depots did not send boxes to the port on Monday night for security reasons.
syful-islam@outlook.com