Thirty ships had by-passed the Colombo Port recently and proceeded to other destinations to drop off import and transshipment containers, according to the Minister of Transport, Highways, Port and Aviation, Bimal Ratnayake. He blamed it on the fast growing berthing delays and the ensuing congestion in the Port of Colombo.
Long lines of containers could be seen queuing-up to get into the Port to discharge export cargo, while on the other hand a long line for import containers awaiting Customs clearance and releasing of discharged import containers from ships, many being inputs for export processing could be seen.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake convened a top level meeting on January 12 with the authorities-in-charge and senior departmental officers and industry stakeholders to find a solution to the problem.
However, the present status – results in major delays in export containers awaiting loading to ships and import containers waiting to be cleared.
This operation is the backbone of the economy. It is reported that 1,800 containers have to be cleared each day from the port but last week only 700 were cleared. Where would the rest of the containers be at the port?
The container yard space for each terminal is blocked to the extent that yard operations are affected and congestion builds up.
Inbound ships are unable to discharge the cargo to the quayside for yard storage.
The Container Transport Owners Association has stated that the Customs was directly responsible for the delay to release containers.
Although not reported, the export community is lamenting on the long- wait for de-mount and the turn-around of export containers, taking up to three to five hours or more per truck. No authority has come up other than the Sri Lanka Shippers Council to look after the interest of exports.
The import containers are held up due to the Customs processing of CUSDECS (Goods declaration)for payment of duty and other levies and penalties. The primary cause being the time taken by the Customs authorities to complete the inspection of goods declared and checking compliance. In this same backlog is the major part of raw materials for processing and re-export of products to world markets.
The export containers coming into the port are delayed due to several reasons. The main congestion as reported by exporters is that one particular deep water west terminal private operator is intentionally giving priority to import containers for the good part of the day and turning a blind eye to the long queue of export containers. The ship-side working gangs are paid the highest productivity incentive for the import discharge operation. This is not acceptable and is a violation of exporters’ rights to access port facilities, after paying the stipulated charges and levies for export containers.
This subject has been brought up with the private terminal authorities over the past two years and they promise to rectify but with no lasting improvement to-date.
It is worsening by the day, with the present situation in the port as stated by the export community and transport associations.
This spells out a serious breakdown of the system which could lead to a major disaster and disrupt national output and foreign exchange earnings.
Foreign investors will be deterred by these alarming inefficient practices.
At specific forums industry leaders and the Shippers Council have taken up these matters and have come up with plausible methods to ease the process. However, at the meeting with the President as an immediate action plan, the Customs were called to work on a 24/7 basis to clear the backlog.
The following services need to be on duty to complete the cycle.
Short-term solutions
a) Customs to be opened and the clearing process continuing to work 24/7 until the backlog is cleared.
b) Along with the Customs the other inspection and testing authorities namely the SLSI, Food Control Department, Health Ministry Dept, Quarantine and Pest Control services, other inspection and back-up services such as the Government Analyst testing and laboratory services be on standby.
Without the output of these entities the path to the clearing process path will not be completed.
c) Emergency plan to redirect resources for inter-terminal trucking – ITT and Multi country consolidation cargo- MCC, if it’s found to be a high percentage of the port’s berthing delays.
d) A quick-fix to eliminate the reasons why transporters of import containers and wharf services association are reluctant to truck out the released containers from the port premises – If required, a short-term incentive to be given to activate the wharf associates productivity.
e) Additional storage and an extra capacity depot facility for storage to move the congestion out of the port and adequate security, protection and facilities to be set up therein.
Long-term solutions
The delays and port congestion is not happening for the first time in the Colombo Port. We have been subject to such delays several times in the past and there are many “Lessons learnt” from previous experience. There are pre-determined solutions that have worked before in solving such issues.
Port berthing delay -, which affects all terminals was a topic taken up last year, ever since the maritime issue in the Red sea and the Suez Canal blockade took place.
The Colombo Port received ships from the overflow of having to go around the Cape of Good Hope and to the Panama Canal.
The reasons for such occurrences could have been observed and analysed well before it could take place and action initiated at the outset.
1. Seasonal/period based, recurring issues.
2. Extra / superficial conditions that arise and experienced before.
3. Regional and neighbouring country port policy and operations that affect our port operations.
4. Berthing delays -The Colombo port has seen this for the past 12 months or so.
Why was it that the present serious port congestion was not addressed and sorted out before it became catastrophic?
There seems to be a new dimension or underlying reasons unknown or some authorities are unwilling to coordinate /corporate. A former senior Customs head of division is at the top level in the President’s office. He has first hand information and experience in the system. Many industry experts are asking why this could not have been handled at that level without dragging the President to do the micro-management of container congestion in the Port.
Solutions based on “lessons learnt”
a) The Customs Department to work hand-in-hand with other authorities and industry leaders.
b) OGA – other Government organisations to communicate with each other in steps needed for fast tracking.
c) In the past, the Customs with the industry and the Shippers Council set up a mechanism to address and communicate with each other quickly.
d) Customs can use other technologies and the use of Intelligence information for compliance and blacklisting errant traders.
e) Major attitude change and a paradigm shift in the way of understanding business or best practices.
f) Methods and processes used in the other Asian port set up to be studied.
If the situation is not rectified fast and normalcy is not restored the Port of Colombo will fast lose its position it has earned and lose out on the logistics position as a place for new business, a commercial hub and a trading centre.
The writer is a past senior head of a leading export organisation with over 35 years of experience in the industry, and a former Chairman of the Sri Lanka Shippers Council.
