Turnaround time of vessels at Ctg Port reduced remarkably
Sunday, 3 June 2007
Jasim Uddin Haroon
The turnaround time of vessels at Chittagong port made an impressive reduction averaging 3.6 days in May.
It was 4.84 days in April, 8.74 days in March, 8.69 in February, and 11.65 days in January this year.
The reduced time, following expeditious cargo handling, will enable the shipping lines to lower their operating cost, sources said.
The turnaround period was over 13 days in December 2006, and 22 days during the October-November political chaos last year.
Port users, mainly the feeder vessels operators and the private operators at different yards said regular monitoring and pragmatic steps taken by the task forces helped reduce the turnaround time at the port.
The port handled 79,595 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in May. It was more than 82,000 TEUs in April.
The feeder vessels called at the port as many as 82 times and the number remained almost same in April.
The private operators said that the turnaround of vessels might further decline if the export containers from the private inland container depots are shipped out soon.
Tarafadar Md Ruhul Amin, managing director of the Saif Powertec Limited, private operator at the Chittagong Container Terminal (CCT), told the FE that the ships berthing time at the CCT is only 2.5 days now.
"Most of the vessels sail out from the CCT within 48 hours, but few vessels have to wait for loading export cargoes from the private inland container depots. We also suffer due to the tide," he added.
The CCT is adequately equipped to handle more than 30 containers each hour while the geared vessels can handle around 13 each hour.
The CCT's services were privatised in March this year while the general container terminal (GCTs) has been privatised in mid-May.
The dockworkers initially refrained from working protesting the privatisation of the GCTs.
However, sources claimed that the dockworkers will join under the private operating company from today (Sunday).
Fazle Ekram Chowdhury, a private operator at jetty nine and owner of the Fazle Karim and Sons, told the FE that turnaround time at the GCT remained high mainly due to the delay in arrival of export containers from the private inland container depots.
"I think the turnaround time will be shortened at the GCT under the present integrated service system," he added.