Thousands of containers, as traders claim, are missing at Pakistan International Container Terminal (PICT) as the Philippines operators of PICT lack in space, equipment and computerised recordkeeping system to handle an increasing number of imported and exportable cargo boxes at the terminal.
Rejecting the claims outright, PICT officials blame traders for having a tendency to use the busy terminal as a warehouse and not transit facility.
Philippines-based International Container Terminal Services Inc Mauritius Limited (ICTSIML) is the largest shareholder of PICT after acquiring directly and indirectly 63.59 percent shares in the holding of the terminal.
"There is no space or equipment at PICT to handle hundreds of containers on daily basis," claimed Nasir M Chandna, vice president of Ports and Shipping Committee at Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI).
Consequently, the trader said "thousands" of containers were lying at the terminal with PICT officials having no computerised record of the same. "At least 1,500 to 2,000 TEUs belong to those (traders) who are ready to lift their boxes," he told Business Recorder.
Claiming to have seen several traders queued up at PICT's collection counter for bill payment, Chandna said the terminal even lacked record of containers dating 3rd and 4th July. "I have a huge list of missing containers".
"PICT people are only interested in minting money by charging storage and detention charges on all detained containers and that too at no fault of the importers," he said.
The terminal, trader said, was charging Rs 1,740 per day as wharfage charge. In case of a delayed delivery, he said, traders were to pay detention charges of $7 to $20 per day, depending on the number of weeks, to shipping lines.
Given this, the FPCCI official said separate delegations of customs agents and transporters also had visited PICT last week to get the issue resolved. "Transporters have threatened the clearing agents of extra charges if their vehicles are detained for more than one day for a delivery," the trader claimed.
Chandna also wondered as to why Karachi Port Trust (KPT) was earmarking ships for berthing at PICT which were "beyond the (handling capacity) limit" of the latter.
A KPT spokesman, however, denied that KPT was entitled to assigning vessels for berthing at the country's container terminals: PICT and Karachi International Container Terminal.
"Having nothing to do with the berthing, we only provide wet services (tugging and pilotage) to the two terminals. They have their own arrangements with the shipping lines to call local ports," the spokesman told Business Recorder.
Conceding that a couple of containers might be missing, Captain Zafar Awan, chief executive of PICT, counter-alleged traders for not taking their deliveries for 10 long days before and after Eid holidays in anticipation of duty charges.
"I am not denying if 2-4 cases of missing containers are there. But you should see how many boxes are being cleared on a daily basis," he told Business Recorder.
The PICT chief said against the previous handling of up to 900 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs), the terminal was presently clearing about 1250-1300 daily. Putting the ball in KPT's court on the question of space availability at PICT, Awan said a state-of-the-art N4 computer system of Navis was in place at the terminal for cargo handling operations.
"They are mixing things here. They must be talking about the KPT area," the port operator said adding, however, that an increasing number of auction containers were adversely impacting his operations. "Over 1500 boxes are stuck up at PICT because of the delayed auction," he said.
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