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The Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) has warned of imposing a four-time high rent for containers stored in the port yards and the Kamalapur inland container depot (ICD), effective from March 10, amid a huge stockpile of boxes in the two establishments.
It has found that some importers have been storing containers for more than 21 days, disrupting the normal operations there.
Till Saturday, some 40,543 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers were lying at the port jetties, where the total capacity is 53,518 TEUs. At the Kamalapur ICD, there were around 1,757 TEUs of containers against its total capacity of 4,267 TEUs.
CPA on Thursday in a notification said container delivery from the port yards and the Kamalapur ICD has been very sluggish in recent days, which is hampering the day-to-day operations there.
The port authority requested importers to receive their consignments immediately to provide faster services for importers and exporters.
It said the situation would be observed until March 9. If the situation does not improve by then, the authority will impose four times as much storage rents from the fifth day of the containers' common landing date.
The penalty will be imposed under section 160 of the Regulations for Working of Chittagong Port (cargo and container) 2001, said CPA in the notification.
It offers importers four days to store containers free of charge from the common landing date. From the fifth day, storage rent is charged, which rises periodically.
For a 20-foot container, importers have to pay $6 per day for the first week, $12 for the following week, and $24 from the 21st day. In case of a 40-foot container, the charge doubles in every segment.
Officials say storage rents at the port and ICDs are lower than private warehouses, which is why importers keep boxes there instead of taking delivery.
Importers use port and ICD yards as warehouses to store their cargoes, which hampers the establishments' operations, they added.
A senior CPA official told The Financial Express the customs can auction the cargoes lying for over 30 days at port yards.
However, due to their reluctance, nearly 10,000 TEUs of containers have been lying at the auction unit for a long period, he said.
Had the customs auctioned the boxes on time, importers may not have dared to continue occupying the yard space for long, he added.
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