Container cargoes show a declining growth trend

Jasim Uddin Haroon The container handling at the Chittagong Port registered a modestly declining rate of growth during this January-November period over the corresponding one of the previous calendar year, causing some frustration in shipping circles, port statistics and shippers said. Senior port officials said the declining rate of growth the volume of export cargoes was the main reason for a stagnant situation at the country's main sea-port. Container handling at the port grew only by 5.0 per cent so far this year against a marked rise of over 21 per cent in 2010, according to the port statistics, released Sunday. This slow growth in container handling of the port that handles more than 90 per cent of Bangladesh's sea-borne trade, indicates that there is a deceleration of the growth momentum, in volume terms, of the country's container-based export and import business during the period under report. The average rate of annual growth of such trade was 10 per cent over the last 10 years, the port officials told the FE. The Chittagong Port handled 1.28 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers during the eleven months of this calendar year, against 1.21 million TEUs during the corresponding period of last one. Of this volume, export consignments stood at 0.64 million TEUs and those of imports also at 0.64 million TEUs in the first eleven months of the current calendar year compared to 0.61 million TEUs of exports and 0.64 million TEUs respectively during the corresponding period of the last calendar year. Terminal manager of the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) Enamul Karim said they are, on the whole, unhappy over the declining rates of growth trend about TEUs this year, compared to the situation in past several years. "Even until August this year, the growth rate of TEUs handled at the Chittagong Port was almost negative. But the volume of handling improved somewhat in October-November period of this calendar year." "We're analysing the data to find out the reasons behind the slower growth rate," Mr Enam added. The main line operators (MLOs) in Bangladesh have also expressed their dissatisfaction over the slow growth of container handling at the port. Country head of Pacific International Lines (PIL), a Singapore-based MLO, Md Rafiqul Islam said: "We assumed that the TEU handling this year would not be on track with that of the previous year, and we're presently carrying outbound cargoes in TEUs at a level much below our capacity." Mr Rafique said, "We're using only 50 per cent of our total TEU cargo handling capacity." Meanwhile, the capacity of Chittagong Port has increased to handling 31,000 TEUs at a time per day, compared to what was 25,000 TEUs a year ago. A S Chowdhury, country chief of Sea Consortium, said: "The volume of outbound container cargoes somewhat peaked in November 2011, but it is still below our capacity." However, Tanveer Ahmed, general manager of CMA-CGM, a France-based MLO, said: "We carried 2,700 TEUs of export goods in November 2011, against 3,500 TEUs in November 2010." Mr Tanveer also said: "We brought only 1,882 TEUs of import cargoes in November 2011 against 3,000 TEUs in November 2010." He said import of raw cotton also fell in the current calendar year due to the new European Union (EU) rules of origin criteria, effective from January, 2011.