Chattogram
Bangladesh's principal commercial maritime gateway, supporting extensive dry bulk, tanker, container and general cargo operations.
Mongla
Strategic gateway for bulk commodities, industrial cargo and regional supply chains.
Payra
An expanding maritime gateway with growing relevance to bulk and energy-related operations.
Matarbari
A strategically important deep-water maritime development supporting Bangladesh's evolving import and logistics infrastructure.
One operational desk. Multiple maritime gateways.
Port & anchorage support
- Vessel arrival coordination
- Port documentation
- Pilotage and berthing coordination
- Customs and immigration liaison
- Anchorage operations
- Cargo-operation coordination
- Departure formalities
- Local husbandry arrangements
Vessel–Port Fit Checker
Enter LOA and draft. See which Chattogram berths fit, whether she must lighten, and the day's daylight high water. Built from CPA's own draft chart and tide table.
What every principal should know
Draft and channel conditions decide whether your vessel berths directly or lightens first. Here is the current picture, from official and published sources.
The main gateway
- Handles about 92% of Bangladesh's seaborne general cargo and about 98% of its container cargo.
- Handled 138.15 million MT of cargo in 2025.
- Large bulk carriers, typically 50,000–60,000 tonnes of grain, scrap, clinker or stone, discharge into lighter vessels at the outer anchorage.
- Entry draft for the river is set daily by the port authority.
The second seaport
- Bangladesh's second-largest seaport, near the Sundarbans.
- Pashur Channel maintenance dredging (2025–2029) aims to bring 9.5–10 m draft vessels to the jetties.
- Annual capacity reported at about 15 million MT of cargo.
- Bulk cargo is also worked at the Harbaria anchorage.
The newest seaport
- 75 km access channel dredged to 10.5 m in 2023 for ships of about 40,000–55,000 tonnes, depending on tide.
- Siltation has since reduced depth, and lightering at the outer anchorage is used again.
- Increasingly used for bulk and energy cargo.
The deep-sea future
- Bangladesh's first deep-sea port, under development by the Chittagong Port Authority.
- Designed for vessels of up to 16 m draft, against roughly 9–10 m at Chattogram today.
- About 34 nautical miles from Chattogram.
- Main terminal construction contract signed in 2025.
Sources for the figures on this page
- Chittagong Port Authority notification, via Dhaka Tribune (Nov 2025)
- BSS, Chattogram Port 2025 performance
- The Financial Express via Hellenic Shipping News, new Chattogram jetties
- BSS, Mongla Pashur Channel dredging (Jun 2025)
- BSS, Mongla Port projects (Jul 2025)
- The Business Standard, Payra after Rabnabad dredging (Mar 2023)
- The Daily Star, Rabnabad channel sedimentation
- Daily Observer, Matarbari construction contract (Apr 2025)
- Dhaka Tribune, distances from Matarbari