The bottleneck at the dilapidated port was caused by a spike in demand for goods as the opening up of the economy accelerates following a historic election win by Aung San Suu Kyi‘s National League for Democracy (NLD) in November.

“Because of the general growth of the economy we are packed. The ships have nowhere to go,” said Ma Cherry Trivedi, managing director of Ayuroma International, an adviser to Myanmar Industrial Port (MIP), where congestion has been worst.

Myanmar boasts one of the world’s fastest growing economies, expanding at 7-8 per cent in the years since the military relinquished direct control in 2011.

But its main port has changed little since the end of British colonial rule nearly 70 years ago – emblematic of ramshackle infrastructure that could hold back the foreign investment Suu Kyi needs to live up to sky-high expectations and remake a country impoverished by decades of junta rule.

The number of ships docking in Yangon has doubled over the past decade and the number of containers has jumped fourfold, data show, clogging up inadequate storage space, overwhelming sclerotic logistics systems and delaying deliveries.

“We bring in the steel, the cement, everything you can think of … as infrastructure grows, which is the key aspect of any development in a country like Myanmar, you are going to see massive growth in imports,” Ma Cherry Trivedi said.

Western shipping lines are largely confined to a single creaking terminal within the port, because of reluctance to use other facilities operated by Asia World, whose majority owner Steven Law remains subject to US sanctions.

Working 24/7

The tipping point into a crisis came when MIP miscalculated the volume of incoming shipments before a three-week holiday in April, when the country largely shut down, shipping companies operating at the terminal said.

That meant up to 10 ships faced delays of as long as two weeks to have their cargo unloaded, causing the biggest jam the port had seen in modern times.

Industry sources said the hold-up costs major shipping lines millions of dollars a week.

“There was no proper cooperation between shipping lines, container storage facilities and terminal operators. Chaos,” said Aye Lwin, joint secretary-general of Myanmar’s Chamber of Commerce, who was involved in efforts to resolve the jam.

Myanmar’s presidential office announced emergency measures in the middle of last month to tackle the congestion, including 24-hour port operation and customs clearance, and ordered daily reports from the ministers of commerce and transport.

Some of the biggest shipping companies, such as Denmark’s Maersk Line, dispatched their own specialists to help manage the situation.

By Thursday, the backlog had been largely cleared, Ma Cherry Trivedi said, although additional staff flown in by shipping lines remained in place, as did the emergency measures, to prevent cargoes piling up once more.

Tatsuya “Ricky” Ueki, managing director at shipping company MOL Myanmar, said the port infrastructure has not caught up with the economic development of the country.

“There’s no easy way out of this, but billions of dollars in the country’s development hinge on how aggressive the government is in solving the problem,” he said.

The port jam underscores the challenges Suu Kyi‘s government faces to keep growth going and attract investment to a country struggling to compete with neighbours in industries such as garment exports, which rely on accurate and timely deliveries.

“Lead times are very important,” said Jacob Clere, who works on a European Union-funded project to improve Myanmar’s garment industry.

“Taking a few days longer than those in the region, they [garment brands] will avoid Myanmar until the lead time is shortened.”