Materials handling leaders focus on growing rebirth of Chittagong

The historic port of Chittagong on the Bay of Bengal is undergoing a renaissance as infrastructure and economic development in the region drive rapidly expanding trade volumes through this major export/import centre of Bangladesh. The bustling city of 3.5 million has seen container volumes treble to more than a million containers a year over the past decade as the emerging economies of Asia - including neighbouring giant India - power their way into the 21st century. Developments such as the Asian Highway - an international network of 141,000 km of standard highways crisscrossing Asian countries - are expected to further expand regional cooperation among the mainland countries of Asia and to further stimulate development in Chittagong, a trading centre which dates from at least the fourth century B.C. when Malayan history chronicles the journey of the sailor Buddha Gupta from Chittagong to Malaya. It has evolved from ancient times as a major Arabian port, then Portugal's Porte Grande and later as a strategic site of allied operations during the Second World War. Trade is forever the city's lifeblood, with most of Bangladesh's export and imports counted among the 30-plus million tons of cargo handled annually at the rapidly modernising port, where a window berthing system was introduced in 2007 to facilitate accurate arrival and departure times for ship operators. "We can see container volumes easily trebling again in the next five years, reaching two, three or four million containers or more" said local business leader and former Chittagong Ports Authority senior engineer Mr Zahirul Hoq. "Bangladesh's own national export growth is sufficient to double or treble exports by itself over the coming decade, even allowing for the economic slowdown having its major effect in developing countries later this year and early 2010. Then there is the positive impact of the Asian highway, on which good political and physical progress is now being made - and the opportunities opening up with India's seven "sister" states around Bangladesh seeking an outlet for their wares," said Mr. Hoq, who is Director (Equipment) of Allied-Steel (HK) company, Bangladesh agent for the global Konecranes lifting businesses. Konecranes is integrally involved in the expansion of the port through major Bangladeshi company KDS Logistics Ltd. KDS Group is installing further world-class Konecranes lifting technologies as it expands its operations, originally founded on the clothing business but now extending through KDS Logistics into the country's largest and most modern Inland Container Depot (ICD). This facility is capable of holding 20,000 containers at any one time on a 20-hectare (46-acre) site in a congestion-free area on the outskirts of Chittagong, on the Dhaka Chittagong highway 25 minutes from the sea port. With a real-time computerised truck handling facility, computerised weighbridge and space for 700 trucks inside its secure environment, the ICD features a container Freight Station build to world's best standards that can handle 120 trucks under cover simultaneously, for loading and unloading (stuffing and unstuffing) of goods such as cotton, jute and food products. The Konecranes fleet currently employed on the site includes a fleet of four SMV 7/8 ECB 90 empty container handlers and three SMV 4531 TB 5 reach stackers. These are based on the latest ports handling technology of Konecranes, which employs more than 9700 people at more than 485 locations in 43 countries and has more than 366,000 cranes of all brands under service contracts. The company is a world-leading provider of lifting and maintenance solutions, with a track record in pioneering, leading and shaping developments in the industry and an enduring strength in ports and materials handling. Leading the way in the application of Canbus technologyAir Jordan IV 4 Running Shoes