Chittagong feeder operators likely to review freight charge hike
"The work on five jetties is over, and 60,000 square metres of back-up facilities have been completed," said NCT director Serajul Islam. The newly-introduced increased freight charges at Chittagong Port are likely to be reviewed by the owners of feeder operators if the turnaround time at the facility improves, reports the Financial Express of Bangladesh.Major feeder vessels operating to and from Chittagong port raised freight charges by US$200 and $50 for each loaded and empty TEU respectively on December 1. Feeder ship owners said that they would continue to realise the new freight charges until the "port situation returns to normal and the turnaround time becomes "tolerable".
QC Container Lines director Jamal Uddin Quader Chowdhury said they had been forced to raise the freight charge following abnormal waiting time for vessels at the outer anchorage and jetties. "Our vessels had to incur losses worth $15,000 a day for delay at the port. We had raised the freight after negotiations with our clients (main line operators). We will continue to realise the charges until the port situation becomes normal," Mr Chowdhury added.
The turnaround time at the port is more than 10 days while port officials and shipping circles said that it should be four days at best. The report quotes shipping sources saying that the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) could reduce the turnaround time and bring efficiency in container handling once the New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) is fully operational. Construction of five jetties in the NCT has been completed, but only two out of the five have been in operation since September 4. The three jetties remain idle due to lack of equipment and manpower, the report said. CPA member operation and harbour M Quamrul Hussain said in the report that they would take steps for reducing the turnaround time at the port after clearing the backlog of containers that were stockpiled, and added that they might ask feeder operators to review charges once the backlog was cleared. However, a representative of Chittagong Feeder Trade Committee (CFTC), engineer S K Ghosh, explained that the port had no plan in addressing its problems, pointing out that the facility had been facing the same problem for 15 years. At press time, a total of 16,420 TEU remained stockpiled at different yards, the report added.