FPCCI slams cargo delays

KARACHI: The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has protested against the delaying tactics of the terminal operators in grounding of containers for examination at Port Qasim and requested the Collector Customs to take notice of the issue, a statement said on Wednesday.

Shabbir Mansha Churra, convener of FPCCI's Central Standing Committee on Customs and the chairman of Pakistan Artificial Leather Imports and Merchants Association (PALIMA) asked the collector Customs to strictly issue the directives to the

terminal operators to ground the imported containers as soon as possible so that importers can be saved from heavy financial losses in terms of demurrage and detention charges.

“We have been informed by our member association that traders are facing unnecessary delays in the clearance of their consignments, especially at KICTL and QICTL due to delay in grounding of containers marked for the examination.”

“It has been observed that after a month or two, traders are facing backlog trouble at the container terminals and nowadays a huge backlog of the containers has started, which is increasing day by day and still there is a backlog of six to nine days,” Churra said.

If the situation remains unresolved, there is no doubt that the terminal will be choked and the trade would be badly affected, resulting in heavy financial losses in the shape of container detention charged by the shipping companies, which is an average of $80 to $100/container/day.