CHATTOGRAM, Jan 01: Chittagong Port, the prime sea port of Bangladesh, handled a record number of containers and highest quantity of cargoes in the previous year.
Sources at the Chittagong Port Authority said the sea port handled over 3.08 million (30 lakh, 88 thousand and 197) twenty-foot equivalent unit containers (TEU container) from January 1 to December 31 in 2019.
The port handled over 2.9 million (29,03,996) TEU containers in 2018, CPA officials said. The rate of growth of handling of containers at the port is 6.34 per cent, they mentioned.
Besides, the port handled over 103.77 million (10,30,77,736) metric tonne (MT) of cargoes from Jan to Dec 31 last year while it handled over 96.31 million (9,63,11,224) MT cargoes in 2018. The rate of growth of handling of cargoes is 7.03 per cent, they mentioned.
A total of 3,807 ships arrived at the Chittagong Port from January to December 31 last year while arrival of ships at the port was 3,747 in 2018. The rate of growth of arrival of ships at the port is 1.6 per cent, said the officials.
They said, the port handled a total of 28,08,499 TEU containers in 2018-19 financial year. It handled 27,05,909 TEU containers in fiscal year 2017-18 (FY '18), 24,19,481 containers in FY '17, 21,89,439 containers in FY '16, 18,67,062 containers in FY '15 and 1,62,509 containers in FY '14.
The port set a new record by handling three million twenty-foot equivalent units for the first time last month, said CPA Secretary Omar Faruk.
"The Chittagong Port has already come to the list of ports in the world handling three million TEUs in a calendar year on December 22 last year" Faruk said.
As the sea port handled three million containers within a year, it set the record by entering the list, the CPA secretary said.
He said the CPA has introduced timeline of staying by a ship at the port. "The Chittagong Port Authority has introduced the limit for ships to remain there, aiming to speed up loading and unloading of containers to reduce acute congestion and improve productivity during the period," he stated.
Contacted, CPA Director (Transport) Enamul Karim said: "The Chittagong Port is depending on the private operators for handling the containers. As the private operators increased their capacity to handle the containers, the capacity of handling containers of Chittagong Port has increased now."
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