Award of DWCT contract to KICT: exporters fear colossal losses

Pakistan's exports would be badly hampered as timely connections to the mainline vessels may not be available from Deep Water Container Terminal (DWCT) at Karachi Groyne Yard after its completion. Exporters fear colossal losses as the development of DWCT has been given to Karachi International Container Terminal (KICT), which is a badly managed terminal, according to Shabir Ahmed, Patron-in-Chief, Pakistan Bed-wear Exporters' Association (PBEA).
There are three sea container terminals which handle almost the entire import/export of containerised traffic in Pakistan. One is located at Port Qasim, owned by DP World, which is a big leader in international ports operation in the Gulf region. The second is Karachi International Container Terminal (KICT), located at West Wharf and owned and operated by Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), which is the top leader world-wide in handling containerised throughput. The third is the Pakistan International Container Terminal (PICT), at East Wharf, operated and managed by Pakistanis.
All the three terminals have positive side, but at the same time suffer from shortcomings as well. Of the three, the KICT, being a leading terminal operator of HPH, has least friendly or professionally managed facilities in Pakistan, according to Shabir. It takes several hours to get connected to the right person to get an answer to your query. And, for no reason, containers are shut out at very late hours without any intimation to the shippers, he said.
Many of the shippers, exporters/importers have endorsed KICT as non-friendly and non-supportive towards promoting Pakistan's trade. Exporters, however, are forced to use this facility, being nominated by the carriers calling at KICT.
He said it is strange that while trade is already suffering, Karachi Port Trust has entered into an agreement with the same group to develop DWCT. Awarding this contract to KICT would lead to its monopoly in Pakistan's trade, and exporters are concerned that the trade would be forced to use the facility, by virtue of nomination. If the mismanagement and "couldn't care less" attitude does not improve, it would result in colossal losses, and earnings of Pakistani exporters would shrink. Timely connection to the mainline vessels will have to be ensured so that goods reach the destination on time to avoid cancellation of L/C and litigation, penalties and loss of export business which may amount to millions of dollars loss to the country also.
There are several examples where containers of exporters were cleared by customs authorities well in time but could not be loaded at KICT. Appallingly, no satisfactory reply was given by KICT officials when enquired to explain the situation. In view of the above and to mitigate anticipated problems and sufferings of exporters, Shabir urged the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) to reconsider the decision of awarding the contract for the development of DWCT to the KICT group.