The Chattogram port handled 86,783 twenty-foot equivalent units of containers in April, the lowest single month throughput in six years, as the coronavirus pandemic put a brake on global and domestic trade.
Last month, the country’s premier port handled 53.76 per cent fewer containers, both inbound and outbound, compared with March, when 1,87,551 TEUs of containers went in and out through the port.
The country’s import and export experienced a decline in January following the coronavirus outbreak in China and the deadly bug had an impact on the port’s cargo handling.
The cargo handling situation slightly improved in March after Chinese factories and ports started to reopen in late February. But when the virus spread through Europe and the US, the major destinations of Bangladesh’s garment exports, the foreign sales nosedived in late March and the major hit was felt in April.
The number of export containers, which were shipped to the vessels from the port, plunged 76.84 per cent to 14,744 TEUs in April from 63,648 TEUs in March. Unloading of import containers from the vessels plummeted 41.90 per cent 71,986 TEUs against 123,903 TEUs in March. Shipping liners blamed the overall fall in global trade caused by the pandemic for such a plunge in container throughput.
Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), one of the world’s leading container shipping lines and the second largest in transporting containerised cargo to and from Bangladesh, faced a noticeable drop in container transport last month. The operator usually transports on average more than 10,000 TEUs of import containers and more than 6,500 TEUs of export containers every month through the Chattogram port.
In April, it transported 4,538 TEUs import containers and 1,138 TEUs export containers.
Many foreign buyers, including Verner, Walmart, Primark, JC Penney and Adidas either cancelled or put on hold their orders bringing down the exports, said Md Ajmir Hossain Chowdhury, assistant general manager for operations of MSC. Overall, cargo handling in the port also reduced.
In March, 1.03 crore tonnes of cargoes, both containerised and bulk, were handled by the port. It was 70 lakh tonnes in April. The port handled 257 vessels last month, down from 366 in March, 364 in February and 357 in January. Port officials blame the acute container and vessel congestion for the poor container handling in April.
There were enough imports last month but due to the space scarcity at the port, the containers had to be stuck on the vessels in the sea, which impacted the overall container handling. The port was not closed even for a single hour despite the countrywide shutdown caused by the coronavirus outbreak, said Chattogram Port Authority (CPA) Member Md Zafar Alam.
“The export might have been hit by the fall in global trade but the import was ample ahead of Ramadan,” Alam said, adding that most of the import containers could not be unloaded on time as the vessels had to wait in the sea due to the container congestion.
More than 20,000 TEUs of import containers that arrived last month could not be unloaded as they were stuck in the sea. If they could be unloaded timely, the overall container throughput would have been much higher, said port officials.
