Container deliveries on weekly holidays from Bangladesh's prime seaport in Chattogram go down drastically, creating stockpile of boxes and hindering trade handling, sources say.
The Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) reviewed the container-delivery position of Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays for the month of October and November and found the deliveries insignificant.
Thus, the number of boxes at the port yard during the holidays remained very high, creating obstruction to overall operational activities.
The authority in a recent letter urged the port-users to take delivery of containers in the similar volumes on holidays as on other normal days, but to no effect.
Officials say the port remains functional -- for delivery of import cargoes and shipment of export cargoes -- round the clock to facilitate the country's external trade.
On a normal working day, they say, around 4,000 TEUs (twenty feet equivalent units) to 4,500 TEUs of containers are being delivered from the port yard. On the other hand, the box delivery during Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays goes down to levels between 2,000 TEUs and 3,000 TEUs.
But during the holidays the unloading of containers from the vessels remain same as on normal working days. "As a result", the officials said, "The number of boxes at the port yard goes up significantly."
According to port data, on Sunday morning, some 42,716 TEUs of containers were lying at the yards against the total storage capacity of 49,018 TEUs.
A senior CPA official told the FE that the port authority had been providing such reminders to the users almost every month but they hardly paid heed.
He further said the port advisory committee at a meeting in December last year also called upon the port users to take delivery of boxes on holidays like on normal working days.
But data showed that port-users did not care about the reminder and request from the port authority and government high-ups, he added.
President of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) Mahbubul Alam told the FE that as most factories in the country remain closed on Fridays, the owners do not show interest in taking delivery of boxes on the day.
He said in Bangladesh there is immense shortage of warehouses and, thus, industrial importers keep their imported goods on factory premises which remain closed on weekend.
"But importers should arrange alternative ways for taking delivery of containers on the holidays," said Mr Alam, also the chairman of port-users' forum.
"It's a matter of national interest. The port yard cannot be kept occupied like this," he added.
syful-islam@outlook.com