The recently inaugurated Patenga Container Terminal (PCT) at Bangladesh’s port of Chittagong is expanding its operations, providing carriers with new options for serving Bangladesh. PCT is currently handling the 2,750 TEU Maersk Chattogram and, for the first time, managing export, import, and empty containers simultaneously.
The Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) completed the construction of PCT in June 2022 and, in December 2023, signed a 20-year operating concession agreement with Saudi operator Red Sea Gateway Terminal (RSGT). PCT commenced commercial operations in June 2024, initially handling only export containers. Following the installation of a container scanner for imported goods, Bangladesh Customs deployed officials to conduct customs procedures, enabling PCT to service imports as well.
According to Omar Faruk, spokesperson for the Chittagong Port Authority, PCT successfully handled two import container-laden vessels in February and March on a trial basis. The arrival of the Maersk Chattogram may also signal that Maersk is looking to consolidate more of its Chittagong services at PCT.
The eeSea liner database shows that PCT already hosts Maersk’s SH1 service, which uses six vessels with an average capacity of 2,800 TEU, with a port rotation of Chittagong-Tanjung Pelepas-Ho Chi Minh-Yantian-Yokohama-Kobe. Meanwhile, the Maersk Chattogram is deployed on Maersk’s South China-Bangladesh IA7 service, which has a port rotation of Shantou-Hong Kong-Nansha-Yantian-Tanjung Pelepas-Port Klang-Chittagong, and its usual terminal in Bangladesh is the Chittagong Container Terminal. The service deploys five vessels of 2,800 TEU capacity.
“We will increase the frequency of vessels in the terminal,” stated an RSGT official.
Tailwinds Shipping, a German line owned by supermarket giant Lidl, is also reportedly redesigning its network out of Bangladesh, 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 previously linked up with Tailwinds’ TEX service, which called Chittagong-Colombo on a fortnightly basis, deploying the 1,800 TEU Nordtiger. In the future, that transhipment link will take place at Port Klang.
"We always closely monitor the shipping market in Asia – the adjustment of our PAX and TEX service schedules is for operational reasons," a Tailwinds spokesperson told us.