Chittagong port is heavily congested with nearly 40,000 containers piling up and importers facing high demurrage charges. The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) and the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) have appealed to the Government to waive the charges to ease the burden on businesses. Currently, the port yard space is almost saturated and operations are hampered.
In recent weeks, student protests in Bangladesh have triggered a chain reaction that has led to highway disruptions, curfew enforcement and limited internet services. This chain of events has had a severe impact on the Chittagong port, where nearly 40,000 TEUs of containers are currently piled up at the port terminals, which are mainly loaded with imported goods that are in dire need of processing.
For importers, the situation is even more dire. According to port regulations, huge demurrage charges are incurred for containers that remain in port yards for more than four days. Specifically, 20-foot containers are charged US$6 per day from the fifth day onwards, US$12 after 12 days, with the cost increasing over time to US$24 after the 21st day; and 40-foot containers are charged double the above rate. This is undoubtedly another blow on top of the huge economic losses already caused by the closure of factories and delays in shipments.
To ease the burden on businesses, the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) and the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) have called on the government to waive the demurrage charges. Last Wednesday, the former even made it clear that it demanded a demurrage waiver within the same week and a moratorium on all new charges for 15 days after port operations returned to normal.
In this regard, India's deputy shipping minister Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury said on the 25th, the government is actively considering the application of enterprises, and pointed out that during the epidemic has been unable to receive goods in time for the implementation of the policy of warehousing fee reductions and waivers, and this time may also be based on the actual needs of enterprises to make the corresponding adjustments.
However, the current situation of Chittagong port is still not optimistic. A large number of containers have taken up about 80 per cent of the port's yard space, far exceeding the commonly accepted 60 per cent congestion warning line, seriously hampering normal port operations. Despite the gradual restoration of Internet connectivity, the Port Authority has only been able to handle about 3,500 TEUs of container deliveries per day over the past two days, with efficiency far from returning to normal levels.
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