Chittagong throughput up 21 per cent to a record 1.47 million TEUs in the 2010-11 financial year
Container handling in Chittagong Port increased 21 per cent to a record 1.47 million TEUs in the 2010-11 financial year, thanks to booming foreign import trade, reported the Financial Express (Bangladesh).
The country's premier port, which accounted for 92 per cent of Bangladesh's US$55 billion foreign trade, handled 1.12 million TEUs export and import cargoes and 350,380 empty containers.
In 2009-10 fiscal year the port handled 1.12 TEUs, posting a growth of around 10 per cent over the previous fiscal, officials said.
"Both the growth and the volume of trade created new milestones at the port last year," Enamul Karim, terminal manager of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) said.
He said average growth of the port's annual container handling had hovered around 12-13 per cent over the last decade.
"But this year it stood nearly double the average growth rate because of the around 40 per cent hike in export and import," he said.
Karim said because of this high growth some 70 per cent of Chittagong Port's existing yards were utilised in the last fiscal, up from 58 per cent a year before.
Top shipping company executives said the port capacity was now bursting at its seams as the external trade was increasing at a hefty pace without any tangible efforts to expand terminal capacity.
"I am afraid container congestion will be a daily scene at Chittagong from 2013 if the CPA does not expand its container handling capacity quickly," said a senior executive at a shipping company.
But port officials rejected this gloomy prognosis, saying that the CPA has undertaken a raft of development projects to cope with increasing demand for containers.
Mohammad Sarwar, head of traffic, said the CPA has planned to launch container terminal management systems (CTMS) later this year and a new back-up of the New Mooring Container Terminal would be ready by mid-2012.
"The new NCT alone can accommodate more than two million containers. It will be equipped with 10 gantry cranes. The CTMS will also boost the port's capacity and productivity," said Sarwar.
Enam said if the new NCT and CTMS get ready in time, Chittagong Port will be equivalent to India's largest seaport, the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, at Mumbai.
Container trade began at Chittagong Port in 1976 with the arrival of six TEUs.
The trade got momentum after the CPA built its first container terminal, called Multiple Purpose Berth in 1992.
The country's premier port, which accounted for 92 per cent of Bangladesh's US$55 billion foreign trade, handled 1.12 million TEUs export and import cargoes and 350,380 empty containers.
In 2009-10 fiscal year the port handled 1.12 TEUs, posting a growth of around 10 per cent over the previous fiscal, officials said.
"Both the growth and the volume of trade created new milestones at the port last year," Enamul Karim, terminal manager of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) said.
He said average growth of the port's annual container handling had hovered around 12-13 per cent over the last decade.
"But this year it stood nearly double the average growth rate because of the around 40 per cent hike in export and import," he said.
Karim said because of this high growth some 70 per cent of Chittagong Port's existing yards were utilised in the last fiscal, up from 58 per cent a year before.
Top shipping company executives said the port capacity was now bursting at its seams as the external trade was increasing at a hefty pace without any tangible efforts to expand terminal capacity.
"I am afraid container congestion will be a daily scene at Chittagong from 2013 if the CPA does not expand its container handling capacity quickly," said a senior executive at a shipping company.
But port officials rejected this gloomy prognosis, saying that the CPA has undertaken a raft of development projects to cope with increasing demand for containers.
Mohammad Sarwar, head of traffic, said the CPA has planned to launch container terminal management systems (CTMS) later this year and a new back-up of the New Mooring Container Terminal would be ready by mid-2012.
"The new NCT alone can accommodate more than two million containers. It will be equipped with 10 gantry cranes. The CTMS will also boost the port's capacity and productivity," said Sarwar.
Enam said if the new NCT and CTMS get ready in time, Chittagong Port will be equivalent to India's largest seaport, the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, at Mumbai.
Container trade began at Chittagong Port in 1976 with the arrival of six TEUs.
The trade got momentum after the CPA built its first container terminal, called Multiple Purpose Berth in 1992.