Indian exporters are experiencing significant delays and disruptions due to late vessel arrivals and port call omissions, primarily linked to schedule disruptions in the Red Sea region affecting container supply chains.
These disruptions predominantly impact connections serving Asia and Middle East trades, caused by congestion at major hub ports in the region.
For instance, CMA CGM’s Middle East-India-East Africa (MIDAS 2) service will skip the port call at Mundra due to sailing delays. CMA CGM Agencies (India) informed customers that the CMA CGM San Antonio will now only call at Nhava Sheva, with an expected arrival on 7 July.
“Customers are requested to plan shipments accordingly,” stated the notice.
Under normal circumstances, the weekly MIDAS 2 service operates on a Jebel Ali-Mundra-Nhava Sheva-Durban-Jebel Ali route, using seven vessels for a 49-day round trip.
CMA CGM has announced several other port omissions, including Singapore, Port Klang, Colombo, and Hamburg, across various routes.
These omissions include the X-Press Capella, part of the Asia-Subcontinent Express AS9 service, which will bypass Port Klang and Hong Kong on its eastbound journey. CMA CGM co-loads on this intra-Asia route with Evergreen, X-Press Feeders, and ONE. Another AS9 service ship, TS Keelung, will also skip Colombo.
Additionally, CMA CGM has informed customers that its intra-Asia IEX service will skip Port Klang, and its China-India Express CIX route will cut calls to Singapore, Hong Kong, and Port Klang in the coming weeks.
Amid these schedule disruptions, Indian exporters and forwarders report severe space issues on vessels throughout July.
“Congestion continues to create havoc in the supply chain,” commented an executive from a Mumbai-based industrial group. “Deteriorating schedule reliability has added to the longer transit times linked to the Red Sea crisis,” the executive added.
Sunil Vaswani, executive director of the Container Shipping Lines Association, noted that carriers are striving to alleviate shipper difficulties, but significant challenges persist.
“Some lines have started skipping Singapore and transshipping containers at other hubs like Port Klang, while others have resorted to ad-hoc vessel calls to increase capacity and expedite container movement,” Vaswani told The Loadstar.
He advised shippers and consignees to align their shipments with current market conditions, as buyers are placing peak-season orders earlier than usual.
Additionally, there are concerns that some shipping lines are increasingly routing third-country cargo through Indian ports, potentially reducing space allocations for local export loads. This concern appears valid, given the recent surge in transshipment volumes at Nhava Sheva and Mundra ports.
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