Home ›› 26 Aug 2021 ›› Editorial
Corona virus has left its devastating mark on all sectors in life. It is far from over and continues to affect the health and economy of people all over the world. Bangladesh’s economy has been hit hard in the last two years, especially as it affected our prime foreign currency earning sector—Readymade Garment. Besides, textiles and transport sectors have suffered losses to the tune of crores.
The authorities of Chittagong Port have been trying their best to keep the country’s number one port functional throughout the pandemic period. Foreign and local vessels have been coming and going at regular intervals. But, as detailed in a report in this daily, in recent months the principal port saw a significant fall in maritime traffic, believed to be because of the diminishing readymade garment export performance. RMG factories also have to import cloths in large volume and accessories on a regular basis through this port.
It is known that as Covid-19 spread alarmingly throughout the country RMG factories pulled down their shutters in consideration of the vulnerability of the garment workers. Foreign buyers had also cancelled large orders throughout 2020 thus bringing RMG export activities almost to a halt.
This may be mentioned here that Chittagong Port is the largest and most busy port in Bangladesh. This port ranked 67 among the top 100 ports, according to an UK-based ‘Lloyd’s List’. In its heydays it handled almost 90 per cent of the country’s export and import. Chittagong Port’s past record is impressive. It handled nearly 3 million TEU in 2017, though its designed annual capacity is 1.7 million TEU.
The port at the moment has a 50,000-TEU storage capacity, including the yard at Pangaon Inland Container Terminal. It has an annual container handling growth of more than 10 percent. In normal situations, before the arrival of Covid, the port yard faced acute congestion. To handle the large number of covered vans and trucks, the port authority has taken up a plan to build a one million-square-meter (1.19 million-square-yard) mega-container yard, to increase storage capacity, which will ultimately reduce port yard congestion. The new facility will add space for 550,000 TEUs, and this will take up storage capacity to 600,000 TEUs, a more than tenfold increase.
But, because of the Covid stalemate the port ranking has come down to 58 at the moment. The ranking of the ports is based on the previous year’s performance. The CTG Port authority confirmed that port ranking slipped because of declining imports and exports during the pandemic. They said that the infrastructure is capable of handling around 40 million TEUs,
As said earlier, the pandemic had a negative impact on the country’s main export sector - RMG. In 2018-19, RMG worth $34 billion were exported using this port. With the onset of the pandemic export came down to $28 billion in 2019-20, as reported by the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).
There is no denying that for the last 40 years, the RMG sector could grow and thrive because of the smooth functioning of the Chittagong Port, albeit with occasional stalemates in the past. The port also contributed directly and indirectly to the overall development of the Chittagong city.
The Lloyd report however mentioned that the surge in online business in the last two years helped to overcome the shortfall in the port activity. Experts pin their hope on the under-construction Patenga Container Terminal under Chittagong’s third box facility, which is scheduled to open in 2022.
According to Lloyd the Covid outbreak wreaked havoc with port operations in the early part of 2020. It was mostly because restrictions were imposed by the government on movement of goods and people. As a result, numerous terminals remained closed for over one year. Maritime traffic slowly started to move in the second half of 2020.
The government will have to do everything possible to bring the Chittagong Port to its previous form. We hope the present slowdown will go away soon and exporters and importers will throng the port premises with their cargo.
