Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) Chairman Rear Admiral Mohammad Sohail said Chittagong Port has entered the 3 million container handling club on December 25, 2023, as the port has handled 30 lakh 4 thousand 505 TEUS containers.
By the end of the year Chittagong port will be handling about 3.1 million TEUS containers, which is almost the same as last year. Chittagong port cargo handling is 11 crore 83 lakh 45 thousand 576 metric tons as of December 25, 2023.Which will exceed about 12 million metric tons by the end of the year. It will surpass the previous cargo handling record.
He said these while exchanging views with journalists in the conference room of the port building on the Chittagong Port Authority's 2023 success and disclosing 2024 action plan on Wednesday.
He said that cargo and container handling is mainly a reflection of Bangladesh's internal needs and economic activities. Despite this unfavorable condition of the global economy, Chittagong Port has maintained continuity in cargo and container handling through its expertise and experience.
The growth of the global economy in 2023 is extremely slow due to the effects of the Covid-19 epidemic and the Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Palestine wars in the last three years. World Economic Outlook (WEO), International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecast global economic growth to slow to 2.8 percent in 2023 from 3.4 percent in 2022.
Although global economic activity has slowed down due to the rise in global commodity prices and supply chain disruption due to the effects of war, there has been no impact on Bangladesh's trade and commerce. Rather, there is continuity in the business of Bangladesh.
CPA Chairman said that there are four terminals in the Bay-terminal. It will have liquid bulb terminals. There will be more than two months of oil reserves. It will increase petrochemicals.
There will be huge investment in Bay-terminal. If there is a Bay-terminal, the port income will increase manifold.
Many foreign companies are interested in investing in it.
M. Sohail said, construction of the Bay-terminal Multipurpose Terminal is planned to start in mid-2024 while the work of Matarbari port will also start next year.
It will be a separate Matarbari Port Authority after a few years.
Chittagong Port members, Port Secretary Md Omar Farur, Project Director of Matarbari Sea Port, Port Deputy Conservator Captain FaridulAlam, Senior Port officers, CBA leaders, Electronic, Print and Online media journalists were present in the event.