Owners Of Containers Are Mortgaging “Sustenance” Of The Algerians!

A member of the National Association of Algerian Exporters, Mahdi Boukadoura, hailed the decision of the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, during the Council of Ministers the day before yesterday, to combat the exacerbation of the phenomenon of leasing containers and the exorbitant costs associated with delay fines resulting from not returning them in short periods, and in return demanded a set of facilities to solve logistical problems at the port level.

Boukadoura said in a statement to “Echorouk” that the cost of selling one container with the lowest price exceeds $ 2000, while its leasing reaches fictional prices, despite the possibility of manufacturing it locally by national public companies in the field of iron and steel, inherited from the stage of the industrial revolution.

Mahdi Boukadoura explained that the container crisis, which worsened during the Corona virus period, and increased its severity at the global market level due to the paralysis that the maritime transport process and activity witnessed, greatly affected the duration of these containers’ stay in Algeria, which doubled the crisis and caused a severe drain of hard currency, calling for the initiation to manufacture them locally and obliging national dealers to do so, especially since this type of industry does not require high technologies nor huge potentials.

Our interlocutor said that the exporter today is facing a number of problems, including the high prices of maritime transport, which doubled this month four times according to what was prevalent in the past, adding that the price of transporting the container from China to Algeria, which was set at 3500 dollars, now reaches 16 thousand dollars, not to mention the long stay in the ports and their overcrowding due to the decision to close dry ports.

He went on to say that the Algerian port complex does not accommodate the large number of containers accumulating at its level, and a number of exporters were forced at the end of the last month of Ramadhan to cancel export programs of more than 40 containers due to the absence of electrical outlets at the port level, to ensure that containers containing perishable foodstuffs are cooled.

This is the result of the large accumulation of containers and goods at the port level.
The head of the National Federation of Import, Export and Investment at the level of the General Union of Algerian Traders and Craftsmen, , explained that the reason for the long stay of containers at the port level is the result of the crisis in the global market in containers and their scarcity, which worsened during the outbreak of the Corona virus epidemic, starting from March 15, 2020, knowing that most of these containers are leased or imported from China and European countries, which have raised their prices during this period.

The representative of the exporters and importers attributed the reason for the accumulation of a large number of containers at the port level to the government’s recent decision to close dry ports due to the violations committed at their level, which led to the absence of sufficient spaces for storing goods, in addition to the bureaucratic procedures hindering the process of liberating containers by administrations, and the inactivity according to the shift formulas, where the port administration leaves the container arrival sites at five o’clock in the evening, which leads to a longer stay of containers in the ports.

He also criticized the weekly holiday system in Algeria, as it falls on Saturday and Friday, which is in contrast to the weekend for the rest of the world’s ports, as the suspension of activity for a period of 48 hours during the weekend causes the ports heavy losses and delays the process of freeing the containers from the port.

The President of the National Association of Exporters, Importers and Investors finally called for the necessity of speeding up the completion of the Hamdaniya port, in the western Cherchell region, which is the project that the President of the Republic personally supervises, stressing that the latter will contribute to greatly relieving pressure on Algerian ports.