CPA urges help to clear port glut with cargo boxes

Cargo containers bound for Dhaka stockpiled at Chittagong seaport for shortage of freight trains, affecting factory production and market supply under cascading impacts, sources have said.

The port glut with containers bound for Dhaka Inland Container Depot (ICD) and also export-cargo boxes stockpiled, officials said, prompting the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) to call for a crash course to clear the glut.

Especially, the importers are suffering extremely to received raw materials, leading to disruption to production in factories, at this hour of market volatility, they added.

Presently, over 1,700 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of Dhaka ICD-bound containers are lying at the Chittagong port, mostly carrying raw materials of garment factories in Bangladesh's predominant export industry.

Only two goods trains now comes to Dhaka ICD from Chittagong each day compared to three or four in the past, resulting in the stockpiling of boxes at both Dhaka and Chittagong ends, said Ahamedul Karim Chowdhury, head of the ICD in Dhaka's Kamalapur.

He said Dhaka-bound 20-foot containers now faced delays of around 16 days and 40-foot containers nearly 11 days in Chittagong following slower despatch of trains consequent on suspension of overtime work by the railway staffs last week.

Railway drivers and staffers last week had stopped working more than eight hours each day on payment dispute, which halted operation of many passenger and goods trains. However, the dispute now got minimised to some extent and railway personnel resumed work additionally.

Due to the absence of requisite manpower the rail-running staffs regularly work extra hours and get paid. However, a recent order of the ministry of finance regarding their additional payments had led to the work abstention.

Mr Chowdhury told the FE Friday some 1,600 TEUs of empty containers were now lying in Dhaka ICD and are supposed to go back to Chittagong.

He said in July 68 trains came to Dhaka from Chittagong carrying containers compared to 89 in May and 85 in June. "Unless trains come adequately, boxes will further pile up at both ends."

Mr Chowdhury last week wrote to the railway authority to take a 'crash programme' of running four trains a day to lessen the stockpile of boxes in Chittagong and Dhaka ICD.

"I am yet to receive any reply to my letter from the rail authority and the number of trains has also not increased," he says about the import-export freighting slowdown.

In the letter to the railway authority he apprehended that importers and exporters could feel discouraged from using trains for carrying cargo boxes unless congestion is cured.

Moreover, a negative mindset can grow among the foreign shipping companies over continuous delays in sending empty containers back to Chittagong by train, he noted.

syful-islam@outlook.com