Rear Admiral M Shahjahan, Chairman of Chittagong Port Authority, said there was no danger of congestion at the port if the importers unloaded the containers at the earliest.
He made the remarks while exchanging views with a 22-member delegation led by Faruk Hasan, president of BGMEA, the apex body of garment manufacturers on Tuesday.
In a meeting held at the conference room of Chittagong Port Building, the Port Chairman said, ‘The job of Chittagong Port is to provide 24 hours service. That is what we are coming up with during Corona .
Our concern is to serve the stakeholders. When export trade was hampered by the global crisis of containers, we tried to find a solution by discussing with all the parties concerned, the letter said. As a result, the benefits matched. Now export trade is becoming normal.
Imported containers should be unloaded as soon as possible after arrival at the port. If the container falls into the port, problems arise. Nowhere in the world are FCL containers unloaded from the port. So the less time the container is unloaded, the faster the work of the port will be.
He urged the BGMEA leaders to discuss with the MLOs the issue of launching direct shipping to the buyer countries by sea, not fixing specific shipping lines for buyers to transport goods and for the exported goods to reach the port within 24 hours cut-off time.
BGMEA President Farooq Hasan said, “Before the start of Covid-19, our exports in FY 2018-19 were 34 34.14 billion. In the 2019-20 fiscal year, it decreased by 6 billion to 28 28 billion. In the last financial year, this sector has turned around a bit. Exports were. 34.45 billion. We have been able to achieve this only due to the cooperation of the government and the uninterrupted cooperation of Chittagong Port”.
“We are in talks with the local heads of shipping lines and buyers to resolve the problems that have arisen in the field of garment exports,” he said. So, no single shipping line is specified for the transportation of goods. Buyers want to export goods in 40-foot-long containers, so discussions are underway to do so in 20-foot containers.
He also mentioned that he has informed the buyers of different countries that there is no tangle in Chittagong port.
Director (Transport) Enamul Karim gave a power point presentation on the current activities of the port at the beginning of the exchange of views.
He said container ships have been receiving on-arrival berthing for the last 15 days, i.e. till August 1-15. As there are no container vessels, cargo vessels are also being unloaded at the container jetty. It takes 7 days to berth in Colombo and Singapore ports, 10-12 days in China and 20-22 days in American ports.
Private ICDs had 17,096 export containers and 28,296 empty containerson July 18.. The number of exported containers dropped to 5,660 and there were 40,010 empty containers on August 15
BGMEA 1st Vice President Syed Nazrul Islam, former 1st Vice President NasirUddinChowdhury, Moinuddin Ahmed Mintu, former Director AnjanShekhar Das spoke.
The meeting was attended by Chittagong Port Authority Member (Administration and Planning) Md. ZafarAlam, Member (Finance) Md. Kamrul Amin, Member (Engineering) Commodore M NiyamulHasan, Member (Harbor and Marine) Commodore Mohammad Mostafizur Rahman, Director (Administration). Md. Mominur Rashid, Director (Security) Lt. Col. MostafaArif-ur-Rahman Khan, Chief Finance and Accounting Officer Md. Ilyas Reza, Secretary Omar Faruq, Chief Engineer (Mechanical) Aminul Islam and Terminal Manager Md. Kudrat E-KhudaMillat .