Berthing delays in container vessels at outer anchorage of the Chittagong Port has eased significantly over the past week.
This has brought down the number of vessels waiting far from the country's biggest port.
This signifies that the country's external trade is being facilitated as it ensures right time shipment and right time delivery of imported goods.
The relief from the worst delays came nearly a year after, people at the shipping firms told the FE on Thursday.
The arrival of fewer bulk carriers at the port is seen as a major reason behind the development.
"Our vessels are coming at the jetties within a day and at best two days from the outer anchorage, which took more than a week in the past," AS Chowdhury, country head of Sea Consortium, a Singapore-based shipping firm, told the FE.
Mr Chowdhury said it has many implications both for the shipping sector and the economy of Bangladesh.
"This will ensure right time shipment and right time delivery of the imported items," he said.
No container vessels wait at the outer anchorage, but they do so when there are technical problems.
Even one or two weeks ago, at least 10 container vessels were waiting for berthing.
However, people familiar with the development told the FE there are many reasons behind it.
The number of bulk-carriers has dropped this time due to the fall in imports of food grains.
"Bulk carriers used to occupy the port as they mostly carried food grains," said one senior official at the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA).
Last year, the government gave top priority to the delivery of food grain after floods and Rohingya influx.
Apart from this, many bulk carriers, which carried stones last year, suffered a lot and now they are lightering the same instead of taking berth at the jetties.
But bulk carriers, which are carrying industrial raw materials, excepting food grains, are strategically bringing big vessels and discharging cargoes from outer point of the port.
Big bulk carriers need not enter the port territory and they can discharge goods through small-sized vessels at outer anchorage or Kutubdia point.
In the meantime, BB statistics show that there was no private grain import during the first quarter of the current fiscal year ending September.
Food aid and import of other grains at the government level were lower at 1.52 million tonnes during July-September, 2018 compared to 2.56 tonnes a year earlier.
Port officials say that the CPA has installed new gantry cranes, which expedited cargo movement.
The output has increased as a result of new gantry cranes, said one official.
The port official also said, "We're allowing vessels even at the general cargo berths."
An analysis by Sea Consortium found that at least eight vessels will drop calling at the port following the delay.
Earlier, the shipping lines used to queue up vessels to overcome the delay at the port.
The berthing delay frustrates the shipping sector and they sometime impose levy on freight to compensate their operating losses.
Rough estimates put the fixed and variable costs of a day waiting to make up its vessel at around US$ 10,000.
