Container congestion forces Ctg port to add yard space

The Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) has expanded its container storage capacity by nearly 10 percent in response to severe congestion that has burdened the port over the past two months.

To ease the pressure, the CPA has freed up additional space in existing yards and started using two old sheds outside the main port area.

This has raised the port’s storage capacity to 59,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), compared with 53,518 TEUs previously, according to CPA officials.

However, the update has yet to be reflected in the official database. Authorities said it would be recorded soon.

As of yesterday, containers filled more than 88 percent of available space. Some 47,463 TEUs of all types of containers remained in the yards, against the total capacity of 53,518 TEUs, according to CPA data.

The situation has become particularly acute for import containers. Around 95 percent of those arriving are full container load (FCL), where a single shipper’s cargo occupies an entire container.

The yards were designed to hold 40,368 TEUs of FCL containers, but by yesterday morning, 38,895 TEUs were stored, filling over 96 percent of the available space.

The congestion has been compounded by delays in moving containers bound for Dhaka’s inland container depots, largely because of a shortage of locomotives on the railway.

Md Omar Faruk, secretary at the CPA, said that despite the heavy load, deliveries of import containers and shipments of exports were continuing smoothly.

“As the port’s storage capacity has been expanded through different steps recently, businesses face no disruption in import container deliveries and export container shipments even after having such volume lying,” he told The Daily Star.

A series of setbacks, including the 10-day Eid-ul-Azha holidays, a nationwide strike by revenue officials, weeks of customs server disruption, and repeated work abstention by prime mover operators, have contributed to the container build-up.

“To ease the problem, we have created extra space in the yards adjoining different sheds. Besides, we have already started storing containers at the large spaces of the two old sheds named X and Y, located around two kilometres from the main yard,” Faruk added.

He said that the new storage capacity now stands at 59,000 TEUs. But he admitted encountering difficulties caused by the slow transport of Dhaka-bound containers and a backlog of around 10,000 abandoned TEUs at the auction yard.