Feeder operators have decided to slap an additional surcharge of $130 on each TEU (twenty equivalent unit) container coming to Chittagong Port unless the congestion at the port that delays unloading of vessels did not improve in a month.

The long queues of ships at the outer anchorage and huge congestion of containers at the terminal yards are the main reasons for such delay at the port, according to sources.

The feeder operators at a meeting in Dhaka yesterday took the decision. They are likely to issue today a notification in this regard, the sources said.

Representatives of leading feeder operators including QC Container, HRC Shipping, Orient Express, Advanced Container and Sea Consortium were present at the meeting.

"We will give one month's time [to the port authority] to improve the

situation by clearing congestions," said an operator after the meeting. "If the situation doesn't improve, we will not have any alternative to imposing the additional surcharge."

He claimed that representatives of all the feeder operators agreed to impose the surcharge. The operators will collect the additional surcharge from mainline operators. But ultimately exporters and importers will have to bear the burden as freight charges will increase.

As garment manufacturers are the major stakeholders in the exportimport trade, the feeder operators had a meeting with the president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and informed him of their decision, the sources said.

"We are informed about the fresh surcharge to be imposed by the feeder operators. We are writing to the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) to take special measures for clearing the congestion," BGMEA President Tipu Munshi told The Daily Star yesterday.

"If such a surcharge is imposed, it would cause huge financial loss to our export-import business," Munshi commented. "We will tell the CPA that we should not bear loss due to the unusual delay in container handling at the port," he added.

Normally a feeder operator charges $300 for carrying each TEU container from Singapore to Chittagong Port. It takes four days to arrive at Chittagong but the vessels have to wait for at least seven days to get unloaded and released from the port.

Earlier, the feeder operators of Chittagong Port imposed such surcharge on container vessels several times. The last surcharge, $50 against each container, was imposed in 1999.

The operators claim that the

amount of surcharge is negligible compared to their loss due to delay in loading and unloading of goods at the port.

According to the feeder operators on average a dozen ships wait at the outer anchorage of Chittagong Port every day. The main reason for such ship congestion is a steady 20-25 per cent annual growth in export-import business in the country.

But the facilities at Chittagong Port have not been increased to cope with the rising demand for exportimport trade, the operators said.

The port authority has recently installed four gantry cranes to accelerate loading and unloading of containers. But according to sources, only 7-8 containers are being handled per hour with the cranes against their standard performance rate of 20 containers.

On the other hand, the sources alleged, there is hardly any space left at the port yard as a section of importers use it as warehouse making delay in receiving their goods. Customs authorities also do not allow any container to go outside the yard.

More than 46 container ships are operated along four routes connecting the port of Chittagong with Singapore, Port Klang and Port Pala Pas in Malaysia and Colombo in Sri Lanka.