CPA slaps hefty penal rents

The Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) has imposed penal rents, four times higher, on storage of empty containers to free the yards of the increasingly busy seaport from getting jammed.
Such penalty, imposed after the lapse of nearly two years, was made effective on Friday.
The CPA decision came following a significant rise in the volume of empty containers in recent times leading to a long queue of vessels at the outer anchorage.
This means a container not exceeding 21 feet will have to pay US$24 for a day instead of $6.0.
And containers exceeding 21 feet will have to pay $48 a day. These penal rents will have to be paid by the main-line operators (MLO), the owners of the containers.
The consignees get four-day free time and they need not pay any rent, if they take delivery within the stipulated time.
Soon after release of goods a container is declared empty. Such empty containers owned by mainline operators are used for loading exports.
Jafar Alam, a spokesperson for the CPA, told the FE: "This increased rent will go on until the situation eases to the satisfactory level."
Mr Alam expressed his hope that the situation would shortly come to normal. The empty containers usually should go to the private off-docks for loading of exports.
It is believed that the empty ones will be removed fast, as the private off-docks rents outside the port are much lower than the port rates.
There are 18 private off-docks that usually charge between Tk 70 and Tk 100 for each day.
A backlog of empty containers at the port yards happens at a time, when off-docks give much attention to imports instead of taking away empty ones.
The private off-docks, which handle both exports and imports, mainly concentrate on the import-laden containers as parties concerned press them hard for release of their goods from the off-dock yards.
Heavy vehicles belonging to the off-docks enter port premises by carrying exports and carry empties when they return.
In a letter to the chairman of the CPA, the Bangladesh Shipping Agents Association (BSAA) urged it to defer the imposition of penal rents as it will affect them financially.
Ahsanul Huq Chowdhury, senior vice chairman of the BSAA, told the FE that shipping firms were not solely responsible for the rise in the number of empty containers at the port yards. He said the port facilities like equipment did not increase in line with the overall growth in container handling. "Rather there are many incidents of breakdowns."
Mr Chowdhury also said the recent cyclonic storm, codenamed Komen, affected the cargo movement.
Container handling rose by 15 per cent at the Chittagong Port in the just-concluded fiscal year, with the handling of bulk cargos marking an increase of 14 per cent over the previous FY.
The premier port -- which is gradually having to deal with transit cargo as well -- handled more than 1.86 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) of containers during the last fiscal year 2014-2015.
In the FY 2013-2014 a total of 1.62 million TEUs of containers were handled while in 2012-2013 the volume of containers handled was 1.34 million TEUs.
jasimharoon@yahoo.com