Chittagong Port is the main gateway for Bangladesh’s ocean cargo import and export. Last year, it handled about 3.41 million TEU, or 20-foot equivalent units, making it the busiest container port on the Bay of Bengal.
RSGT has been running the port’s Patenga Container Terminal since June 2024, under a 22-year agreement signed with the Chittagong Port Authority.
On Friday, the company brought to the site four gantry cranes — the last major pieces of equipment it needed to scale up its presence.
“We were given two years of preparation time — to equip the port facilities, complete all civil works, implement technology and develop human resources,” Sayed Aref Sarwar, head of commercial and public affairs at RSGT Bangladesh, told Arab News.
“The last two years were our soft operation period at the Patenga Container Terminal. Now, with the arrival of four gantry cranes on Friday evening, the final phase of equipment requirements has been completed.”
The custom-built cranes were manufactured by the Chinese company SANY and are expected to significantly enhance vessel-handling efficiency while generating no carbon emissions during operations.
“These cranes are designed in such a way that they can handle two 40-foot containers at a time. This is the first of its kind in any port in Bangladesh and will be operated through fully green operations, meaning there will be no use of fossil fuels to run these cranes as the entire facility will run on electrical energy,” Sarwar said.
“Hopefully, we will start operating the new gantry cranes by mid-July. From that moment, we will run the port at full capacity. If needed, we will undertake further expansion of the facilities. At the moment, however, the equipment we have in place will be more than sufficient to handle the expected volume of containers.”
The Saudi developer is the first foreign company operating at Bangladeshi ports and is steadily increasing the Patenga terminal’s output and permanent workforce.
It handles 155,000 TEU of containers, and with the arrival of the new equipment will increase that volume to 400,000 TEU this year — about 12 percent of total container operations in Chittagong.
Next year, according to Sarwa, the terminal will exceed 500,000 TEUs, or 17 percent of the port’s traffic.
“So far, RSGT has invested $170 million to modernize the port to a global standard. At the moment, we have around 500 workers serving as permanent employees. Besides that, there are around 800 people who deliver services on a contract basis,” Sarwa said.
“All of these workers are Bangladeshi nationals, and we trained them locally and internationally. Some of our employees have been sent to Saudi Arabia to receive training in port operations ... in our port industry, there aren’t enough human resources who can deliver services at the global level. It’s a challenge for Bangladesh. And RSGT is trying to fill this gap through investing in human development.”