Notwithstanding a number of obstacles, including a dreary economic trend, protracted political unrest, and unfavorable weather, Chattogram Sea Port broke the record for container handling in 2024, recording a 7.42% increase over 2023. Just last year, the nation’s main seaport handled 123.6 million metric tons of bulk cargo and 3,276 million TEUS containers. Growth in cargo handling was also attained at an average rate of 3.11 percent. The port’s revenue income of Tk 50,559.9 million represented a 21.39 percent growth over Tk 41,651.8 million in the previous year.
Such growth has helped the port avoid the risks of it’s possible out-throw from membership in the 3-million club. The revenue surplus stood at Tk 29.489.7 million, marking a 37.60 per cent rise compared to the previous year’s Tk 21,431 million. The revenue expenditure was Tk 21,072 million, which is 4.20 per cent less than last year’s Tk 22,028 million.
By counting the quantity of import, export, and empty containers loaded and unloaded at the port’s two jetties—the Kamalapur Inland Container Depot in Dhaka and the Pangaon Inland Container Terminal in Keraniganj—the CPA finished the container handling statistics. If not for the tense situation surrounding the July–August student uprising, restrictions on importing luxury goods, the sharp decline in opening Letters of Credit (LCs) against industrial raw materials, general commodities, and capital machinery, the rapid fluctuations in the US dollar’s value, and the general dreary trend in the global economy that negatively impacted the import-export trade, the performance of the previous year could have reached new heights.
