Chittagong's PCT gives carriers new Bangladesh options

Bangladesh’s port of Chittagong’s recently inaugurated Patenga Container Terminal (PCT) is ramping up its operations allowing carriers to explore fresh options for serving Bangladesh.

The terminal is currently serving the 2,750 teu Maersk Chattogram and for the first time handling export, import, and empty containers simultaneously.

Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) completed construction of PCT in June 2022 and signed a deal with the Saudi operator Red Sea Gateway Terminal (RSGT) for a 20-year operating concession in December 2023.

PCT subsequently started commercial operations in June 2024 solely handling export containers but following the installation of a container scanner to check imported goods, Bangladesh Customs authority deployed officials to conduct customs procedure and it began to service imports.

According to Omar Faruk, spokesperson for Chittagong Port Authority, PCT had handled two import container laden vessels in February and March on a trial basis.

Meanwhile, the arrival of the Maersk Chattogram could also indicate that Maersk is looking to consolidate more of its Chittagong services at PCT.

Meanwhile, the Maersk Chattogram is deployed on Maersk’s South China-Bangladesh IA7 service that has a port rotation of Shantou-Hong-Kong-Nansha-Yantian-Tanjung Pelepas-Port Klang-Chittagong, and its usual terminal in the Bangladeshi gateway is Chittagong Container Terminal.

The service deploys five vessels of 2,800 teu capacity.

“We will increase the frequency of vessels in the terminal,” an RSGT official told.

It is not the only carrier apparently redesigning its network out of Bangladesh, with German line Tailwinds Shipping, owned by supermarket giant Lidl, replacing a call at Colombo on its Asia-Europe PAX service with a call at the Malaysian transhipment hub of Port Klang.

The Colombo call had linked up with Tailwinds’ TEX service that called Chittagong-Colombo on a fortnightly roundtrip deploying the 1,800 teu Nordtiger.

Henceforth that transhipment link will take place at Port Klang.

“We always watch the shipping market in Asia closely – it is for operational reasons that we have adjusted the schedules of our PAX and TEX services,” a Tailwinds spokesperson told.