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As operations at the Chittagong Port began in full swing on Monday morning after a bumpy week, there were 24 box ships at the jetties and outer anchorage, according to port data.
Some of these vessels faced inordinate delays in getting berth due to the work stoppage by the agitating workers centring the government's move to lease out the New-mooring Container Terminal (NCT) of the country's prime seaport.
Data shows on Monday morning, 10 container vessels loaded and unloaded boxes at the main jetties of the port, another at RM & Special Berth, and 13 waited at the outer anchorage.
Shipping agents say the port faced an eight-hour work stoppage each day for three days and a full-day strike for a total of four days, severely disrupting the loading and unloading of boxes as well as the delivery of cargoes.
They say the port authority has successfully managed ship handling at the berths, preventing a bigger queue of vessels.
On Monday, some 42,757 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers lay at the port yards, slightly higher than usual.
The port yards have a total storage capacity of 59,000 TEUs of containers.
Ruhul Amin Sikder Biplob, secretary general of the Bangladesh Inland Container Depot Association (BICDA), said the operations at the ICDs went on in full swing on Monday. On Monday morning, there were some 14,000 TEUs of cargo-laden outbound containers, 7,000 TEUs of import goods-laden containers, and 51,000 TEUs of empty containers at 19 privately owned off-docks in Chattogram.
Muntasir Rubayat, head of operations at GBX Logistics, told The Financial Express when the workers on Sunday night announced the postponement of the strike until February 15, a number of ships carrying some export and empty containers left the port jetties.
"At the moment, carrying loaded boxes is not our priority. Our priority is discharging the imported boxes and leaving as quickly as possible," he said.
He said some ships had left within 48 hours of taking berth. "They could not load adequate boxes, but at the same time did not hold sailing either." Rubayat said some designated boxes could not come from depots due to the strike, which was why the vessels were forced to sail by leaving them behind.
The angry workers announced the postponement of the work stoppage on Sunday night after government officials earlier in the day made it clear that the negotiations with the UAE-based DP World were yet to be completed.
syful-islam@outlook.com