CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu exporters are fearing a further disruption for three weeks even if the stranded ships are cleared in the next four to five days from the Suez Canal. This comes after the stern of a huge container ship, which has been wedged across the Suez Canal for almost a week, was freed from the shoreline and operations are expected to resume soon.
Regional chairman of the Federation of Indian Exporters Organisation (FIEO) Israr Ahmed told The New Indian Express that even if the vessels in one of the world's busiest trade routes are cleared in the next four to five days, anchorage and offloading will cause another three weeks of disruption.
Interestingly, there are few mother ships from Chennai which sail directly to the United States and Europe. "Most of the cargo is rerouted through Colombo Port. The impact will be on exports and imports from the east coast of the United States and also to Europe," said Ahmed.
He said the Suez shipping crisis would also result in shortage of containers due to the delay in shipments. This could even result in port congestion once the vessels start to pile up in ports, he warned. It is learnt that $200 billion of India’s trade flows with Europe, North America and South America are at risk due to the blockage of the Suez Canal.
Ahmed says that the Suez Canal shipping crisis has happened at a time when exporters were trying to meet the year-end demand to realise their financial year targets. Fearing a delay of around three weeks due to the crisis, exporters would opt for air cargo, he said. R N Sekar, secretary, Chennai Customs Brokers Association (CCBA), told The New Indian Express there has not been a spurt in air cargo as of now.
It is learnt that the commerce department has prepared an action plan and even suggested re-routing shipments through the Cape of Good Hope. While Ahmed refused to comment on it, some of the exporters on condition of anonymity feel this could not be feasible for containers carrying perishable items. "It is good for oil tankers that can take another 10 days," said an exporter. "For vessels carrying containers, there are different ports of calls before they reach the destination," the exporter added.
There is a queue of more than 450 ships at the southern entrance to the world's busiest trade route. The backlog has severely strained global supply chains as the canal is a conduit for about 12 per cent of global trade.
Meanwhile, Chennai Port Chairman P Raveendran on Monday said that there has been no delay in schedules and the port has not been impacted due to it. Raveendran said that the mammoth cargo ship blocking the Suez Canal has been wrenched from the shoreline and set partially afloat again and hoped operations would be normalised soon. "Our container movement has not been impacted," said Raveendran.
Interestingly, the Chennai Port Chairman said that trade in the port, which was impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, has now returned to normal. "The traffic volume was negative in April, May and June," said Raveendran. However, trade picked up from October. "Now the port has handled 13,76,832 containers Us (twenty-foot equivalent unit). This is more than 13,75,453 TEUs," said Raveendran.
To a query on how Chennai Port is handling the Covid-19 pandemic and whether there has been any change in standard operating procedures (SoP), Raveendran said the port is continuing with the same protocols. "We have now increased our vigil,' he said.