Bangladesh’s Chattogram port is expected to see an increase in the amount of container and cargo handled in this fiscal that begins today on the back of a rise in foreign trade in recent months.
The port saw negative growth in the last fiscal and calendar year.
In the last fiscal, annual container throughput was 3.115 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) till June 24, exceeding by 3.58 per cent the 3.007 million TEUs of fiscal 2022-23, according to data from the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA).
Container handling by the port increased year on year (YoY) during most of the months of fiscal 2023-24 (FY24), except August and April. The port handled 0.3 million TEUs of containers in May this year, a record high.
The annual container throughput in FY24 may not reach the FY22 figure of 3.255 million TEUs, but may reach close to 3.2 million TEUs, according to domestic media reports.
Similarly, the port handled 113.5 million tonnes of cargo till May this year, which is around 4.8 million tonnes less than the 118.3 million tonnes handled last fiscal.
The port handled around 10 million tonnes of cargo every month over the last 11 months, which indicates that the annual cargo handling may exceed 0.12 billion tonnes this fiscal.