Situation at Chattogram port improves, but ‘will need time’ to return to normal

Containers of imports and exports had started piling up at Chattogram port and the off-dock amid the halt on freight service due to the quota protest movement and the interruption of internet service across the country.

But things started returning to normal on Tuesday. The restoration of limited broadband internet service on Wednesday raised hopes that export and import activities would soon regain their usual pace.

Importers and exporters are now able to have all goods released, claims Imam Gazzali, deputy commissioner of the Chattogram Customs House.

“We completed customs clearance of perishable goods manually until yesterday [Tuesday],” he said. “Today [Wednesday] all operations have returned to normal as broadband internet service has been restored.”

AKM Akhter Hossain, president of the Chattogram Customs C&F Agent Association, said: “There is no problem with the port authority and the customs house. The problem is that we are unable to release the goods as we have not received the dues from the shipping agents. They are not getting internet service.”

When asked about the matter, Gazzali said, “If someone does not have a pay order or invoice, we will release the goods after receiving a guarantee.”

Some 5,000 containers of export goods are stuck at the 19 off-docks at the Chattogram port. Apart from this, no new export products from readymade garment factories have arrived at the off-docks in the past few days. The shipping of import containers from off-docks to factories was also halted.

Port Chairman Commodore M Sohail told bdnews24.com, “The loading and unloading of goods from ships continued as normal at all the jetties of the port. But there was a problem with delivery. Due to this, the number of containers at the port has increased.”

The situation is improving as traffic on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway has resumed and manual clearance of some goods at customs has started on a priority basis. But it may take another week or so for the activity to return to normal.

The port chairman said, “Containers got stuck as there were fewer deliveries from Saturday to Monday. It would have been a problem if the situation had worsened. But the situation began to normalise on Tuesday as the traffic started moving on the highway.”

“All activities inside the port, such as the loading-unloading of containers from ships, and the arrivals and departures of ships were and are normal. However, the terminal operations are being done manually as the internet is down. As such, the staff has had to work quickly.”

HOW THE PORT IS OPERATING

The quota protest movement, which began earlier in the month, became enshrouded in violence on Jul 15. Since then protesters, law enforcers and other groups have clashed while there have been reports of arson attacks in many areas. The violence was particularly intense in Dhaka’s Jatrabari and Shanir Akhra areas.

The clashes left many freight vehicles stranded on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway at the entrance to Dhaka. At one point, a curfew was imposed across the country on Friday night.

Internet service was also interrupted across the country. The government blamed the damage to a data centre in Mohakhali for the outage. The software used by customs authorities to clear goods for import and export at Chattogram port stopped functioning.

The result was that the unloading of containers carrying imported goods from the port and the off-dock and the arrival of containers of export goods at the port were brought to a halt.

The majority of Bangladesh’s imports and exports make their way through Chattogram port. Imported goods are delivered from the jetties and private off-docks at the port.

Export goods, particularly readymade garments, go from factories to private off-docks. After the customs clearance process is complete, they are brought to the port and loaded onto ships. The off-dock has to ensure it has a sufficient supply of empty containers for the task.

These activities are conducted at 19 private inland container depots, or off-docks, at the port.

No containers were delivered directly from Chattogram Port on Monday. And only 415 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units - a 20-foot-long container) containers went to the off-docks.

In the 24 hours to Monday morning, 2,107 TEU containers were unloaded from ships at the jetty and 2,972 TEU containers were loaded.

Of these, there were 1,096 empty TEUs. The remaining 1,876 TEU containers held export goods.

On Tuesday, only 65 TEU containers were delivered directly from the port and 1,110 TEUS containers went to the off-dock.

Usually, the port’s jetties have a total of 30,000 to 35,000 TEUs of containers.

In the 24 hours to Tuesday morning, 948 TEU containers were unloaded from ships.

At the end of the day on Tuesday, the container load at the port was 41,620 TEUs. The maximum capacity of the port is 53,518 TEUs.

A total of 2,044 TEU containers were loaded onto the ship. Of these, 824 were empty while the remaining 1,220 held exports.

‘WILL TAKE TIME’ TO RETURN TO NORMAL

Ruhul Amin Sikder, member secretary of the Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association, said that 700-800 TEUs of export goods are brought from factories to the depots every day. But, due to the current situation, no containers of exports were brought to the depots.

About 1,800 – 2,200 TEU containers of exports are taken from the depot to the port every day. But a total of 5,000 containers of exports were stuck at the depots.

An average of 3,500 – 4,000 TEUs of imported goods are taken from the port to the off-docks and from there to different factories across the country. But, as there was no traffic for the past few days, that number had dropped to zero, Ruhul Amin said.

“As soon as the customs clearance process can be completed digitally and we get readymade garment exports at the off-dock, the quicker we can try and complete the shipping process.

“But then the port will be under increased pressure. So, once the normal pace of customs clearance, imports and exports begins, it may take seven to eight days to get back to the regular pace.”