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Chattogram port, the nation’s primary import-export gateway, was unable to experience the growth that it had hoped for in the outgoing fiscal year, due to the global economic downturn.
The Chattogram port anticipated and attempted to maintain its overall performance growth of 10 per cent annually in order to keep pace with the nation’s economic expansion, but the growth was only slightly more than 5 per cent in FY2021–22, according to port sources.
The port handled 117 million tonnes of cargo in FY22, an increase of 3.9 per cent from 113 million tonnes the previous year.
In the same period, the port handed 4,231 ships, an increase of 4.2 per cent from 4,072 ships the previous financial year. Container handling at the country’s main seaport has also increased by 5.1 per cent compared to last year.
In FY22, the port handled 3.2 million TEU containers, up from 3 million TEU containers in FY21. CPA Chairman Rear Admiral M Shahjahan said the Russia-Ukraine war has created a lot of problems for the global shipping sector.
“However, we have launched direct ships to a number of European nations in order to circumvent the issues.”
He hoped that the crisis would be resolved this year, and several initiatives had been made. According to port and shipping sources, the Ukraine-Russian conflict, the global shipping crisis, and various domestic and international circumstances all contributed to a downward trend in import and export trade growth, which also had an impact on port growth.
However, the port authorities are working to speed up international trade by setting up direct shipping with a number of European nations, besides China, Hong Kong, and South Korea.
In FY2020–21, the year the Covid pandemic shocked the world, all the stock indices of Chattogram port, which oversees 92 per cent of the nation’s import-export trade, began to rise.
In FY2021–22, the port handled 11.98 per cent more cargo, 3.1 per cent more containers, and about 8.92 per cent more ships compared to the previous year.
However, despite being relatively good, cargo handling growth in FY22 was lower than it was during the Covid pandemic year.
Port users and traders said that the slowdown in port growth is being seen as a result of the global economic downturn and that growth will not be as good as anticipated if port capacity is not increased.
Mahbubul Alam, president of the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), said that the port had been operating at its best in recent years and that nothing more could be done to improve performance besides increasing its capacity to keep pace with the economy.
He demanded that operators be hired right away at the recently built Patenga Container Terminal and emphasized that the terminal’s construction be finished.
