Holidays lead to containers piling up at Bangladesh's Chattogram port

Acute congestion is expected as the volume of goods handed over to consignees each day may not rise until most factories and related offices reopen.

The volume of daily deliveries and transfers of import containers started to fall on June 7.

The port saw the clearance of only 521 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of import containers on June 6. These were either transferred to different private inland container depots (ICDs) or had their goods handed over to the recipients.

On an average day, the port usually witnesses the delivery of around 4,500 TEUs.

Not a single container was delivered on day of Islamic festival Eid. And on the following days, the deliveries did not pick up.

Only 437 TEUs of import containers were delivered and transferred in the 24 hours since the morning of June 8. It was 1,381 TEUs and 1,787 TEUs on June 9 and June 10, respectively, according to a domestic media outlet.

Meanwhile, a long queue of incoming container vessels had formed at the outer anchorage of the port following Eid day. The scenario has improved remarkably in the last few days.

The port has a capacity to store up to 53,518 TEUs of containers.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (DS)