Cargo handling at Ctg Port declines
Friday, 26 December 2008
FE Report
Handling of export and import cargoes has fallen over the past three months in the country's premier seaport of Chittagong, port officials said Wednesday.
Port and shipping sources said the fall is mainly because of ongoing financial crisis in the US and other rich nations coinciding with the usual lean period for the country's exports.
According to data released by Chittagong Port Authority (CPA), it handled 45912 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of import cargo this October, and it handled 42458 TEUs in November, around 8.0 per cent fall over the preceding month.
The port officials said up to December 20, it handled 36570 TEU import cargoes.
They also said the export volume reached 40442 TEUs in October, 46075 TEUs in November and 29369 TEUs until December 20. These included empty containers.
CPA does not only compile data for export cargo loaded containers, it takes into account the empty containers as well. They hinted that the number of empty containers was on the rise in the shipment following fall in export goods.
Officials at the Chittagong Container Terminal (CCT), the largest terminal in the port, said it handled a total of 26122 TEUs up to December 24 against 36520 TEUs in November.
CCT handled a total of 37763 TEUs in October this year, officials said.
Sources at the feeder operators and private terminals said the export fell by around 30 per cent over the past three months.
Ahsan Aziz Shelly, chief executive officer of Esack Brothers Limited, said his terminal is also receiving poor quantity export cargoes over the past few months.
"We are receiving poor quantity of export cargoes after Eid. It was also poor in October," Mr Ahsan added.
Handling of export and import cargoes has fallen over the past three months in the country's premier seaport of Chittagong, port officials said Wednesday.
Port and shipping sources said the fall is mainly because of ongoing financial crisis in the US and other rich nations coinciding with the usual lean period for the country's exports.
According to data released by Chittagong Port Authority (CPA), it handled 45912 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of import cargo this October, and it handled 42458 TEUs in November, around 8.0 per cent fall over the preceding month.
The port officials said up to December 20, it handled 36570 TEU import cargoes.
They also said the export volume reached 40442 TEUs in October, 46075 TEUs in November and 29369 TEUs until December 20. These included empty containers.
CPA does not only compile data for export cargo loaded containers, it takes into account the empty containers as well. They hinted that the number of empty containers was on the rise in the shipment following fall in export goods.
Officials at the Chittagong Container Terminal (CCT), the largest terminal in the port, said it handled a total of 26122 TEUs up to December 24 against 36520 TEUs in November.
CCT handled a total of 37763 TEUs in October this year, officials said.
Sources at the feeder operators and private terminals said the export fell by around 30 per cent over the past three months.
Ahsan Aziz Shelly, chief executive officer of Esack Brothers Limited, said his terminal is also receiving poor quantity export cargoes over the past few months.
"We are receiving poor quantity of export cargoes after Eid. It was also poor in October," Mr Ahsan added.