Due to berth operators’ refusal to cooperate in filling out necessary paperwork, container processing at Chattogram Port’s six jetties has recently halted. A long-running dispute between shipping brokers and berth operators over increasing onboard container handling fees is the cause of the disruption. Since 2007, these berth operators have been in charge of the six container jetties at the General Cargo Berth (GCB), the port’s oldest terminal, which handles geared boats.
For loading and unloading operations, shipping agencies now pay these businesses Tk 559.53 per container as an onboard container handling fee. The shipping agents have rejected berth operators’ months-long proposal to increase this price. When two vessels, the MV San Pedro and the MV JT Glory, were berthed at the GCB on January 4, the situation reportedly worsened as berth operators allegedly started to refuse to cooperate with documentation procedures. Berth operators allegedly ceased processing import discharge and export clearances from the CPA’s shipping section, as well as providing export loading plans to private off-docks, according to local shipping agents for these boats. Because off-docks need export loading schedules in order to move containers to vessels, these actions caused operational disruptions. Later, a number of other ships apparently experienced the same problems.
On January 6, vessel operators and shipping brokers received letters from berth operators requesting a $5 increase in the current onboard handling rate per container. The BSAA argued in a recent letter to the CPA that such yearly hikes without a gazette notification are nonsensical and were the result of a verbal directive from Shahjahan Khan, the shipping minister at the time.
