Feeder surcharge at Chittagong
Feeder vessel operators are threatening to slap a $130 surcharge on each TEU that they have to handle at the port of Chittagong unless congestion there decreases within the next month. At present, feeder lines such as QC Container, HRC Shipping, Orient Express, Advanced Container and Sea Consortium charge $300 to transport each TEU between Singapore and Chittagong. This journey takes four days, but vessel operators are currently then faced with a further seven days spent in the port.
APM Terminals, CMA-CGM, DP World, ETA, ICTS, Gammon Infrastructure, IL&FS, GVK, Soma Enterprises and Concor are all interested in bidding.
Surcharges have been imposed in the past on several occasions, the last of which was in 1999 when $50 was added to the cost of handling each container. According to the feeder operators, it is not uncommon to have 12 ships waiting at the outer anchorage every day. They blame the collapse at Chittagong on a 20%-25% growth rate in import-export traffic in recent years, but without a concomitant increase in quayside lift capacity. Despite the recent addition of four quayside gantry cranes, it is believed only 7-8 moves per crane hour are currently being achieved! To make matters worse, the current stacking yard is full to bursting.
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