Dwaipayan Barua

A new container shipping service between Chattogram and China will be launched tomorrow that will directly link Bangladesh to Vietnam on the sea route for the first time.

Unloading of imported bulk cargoes from vessels at the outer anchorage of the Chattogram port has remained suspended for the last three days until yesterday due to inclement weather resulting in rough seas and incessant rain.

After being afloat for over 21 hours in the Bay, all 14 crew members of a lighter vessel that capsized Saturday morning at Hatiya channel were rescued by local fishermen.

In what can only be considered a rare development, the number of container vessels waiting for berths at the outer anchorage of the Chattogram Port is zero at present.

Various types of imported hazardous cargo, including chemical and other inflammable goods, have been lying around at the designated shed and yards of Chattogram Port for years -- posing the threat of fires and other accidents.

The weekly bidding of the new tea auction year will finally take place in Chattogram today, two months later than its scheduled start on March 24, much to the relief of tea estates and small farmers, who are sitting on about 2 million kilograms of unsold tea.

To get rid of acute container congestion, the best option for the Chattogram Port Authority (CPA) was to shift a bulk of them to the 19 privately owned inland container depots (ICDs) in the city and its outskirts.

Poor delivery of refrigerated containers, largely known as reefer containers, used to transport perishable goods continues to be a major hurdle for the Chattogram Port despite the recent improvements in the release of many other containers.

Importers such as apparel-makers have called for a full waiver on the detention charges levied by the shipping lines for holding containers beyond the free time because of the coronavirus-induced shutdown.

The Chattogram port handled 86,783 twenty-foot equivalent units of containers in April, the lowest single month throughput in six years, as the coronavirus pandemic put a brake on global and domestic trade.

The Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) yesterday extended the deadline for full waiver on the storage rent for import load containers by 12 more days to May 16 after its two previous attempts failed to decongest the port.

The Chattogram port is finally drifting away from a standstill as the seemingly never-ending congestion both at the terminals and the outer anchorage is clearing up following a string of measures taken by the port authority and the government.

The Chattogram Port Authority (CPA) has once again announced full waiver on store rent for all import containers that have arrived after the general holiday began as it desperately attempts to decongest the country’s main port.

With the eye on Ramadan, Jannat Enterprise, a Dhaka-based importer, brought in about 250 tonnes of dates from Egypt in 20 refrigerated (reefer) containers that arrived at the Chattogram port 15 days ago.

In a last-ditch move, the Chattogram Port Authority (CPA) has started writing to importers directly asking them to take delivery of imported cargoes that have piled up at the country’s premier port and causing congestion.

With Ramadan already underway, prices of essentials continue to soar in Chattogram kitchen markets -- at a time when hundreds of thousands of people are struggling with reduced income due to the restrictions brought about by the coronavirus outbreak.

The revenue authority has at last allowed all types of import containers to be shifted and stored at the 19 private inland container depots until June 30 in a bid to decongest the Chattogram port premises.

On April 5, OEL Bangladesh, a container vessel, arrived at the outer anchorage of Chattogram port bearing a multitude of import goods, including raw materials for the vital garment industry.

The 100 per cent waiver on store rent for import containers to solve the acute container congestion at Chattogram port ended yesterday with virtually no improvement in the space crisis.

The logistics and freight forwarding business in Bangladesh has been devastated by the global coronavirus pandemic, which has led to a nosedive in transportation of goods by land, air and sea.