Schedule Disruption Further Tightening Indian Capacity 25/10/21

Poor schedule reliability and diverted calls on container services ex India are further slowing outbound cargo flow from the country and putting additional pressure on capacity-strained supply chains.

Indian exporters are now scrambling to reconfigure shipment plans. Meanwhile, carriers are beginning to discharge India-bound cargo elsewhere, which adds both time and cost for shippers.

Some carriers have reduced call frequency or adjusted port rotations to try to regain schedule integrity. Hapag-Lloyd, for example, has advised it will be omitting some of its weekly services, including at Visakhapatnam on its India-Europe Express (IEX), as well as at Hazira and JNPT on the Indian Ocean Service (IOS) connecting to the Mediterranean. It will instead discharge those import loads at Colombo, Sri Lanka and Jebel Ali respectively.

Schedule disruption has been attributed to port delays and slower equipment flows. Although officials say that equipment repositioning into India has increased following the introduction of incentives for moving empty containers via rail, forwarders say the equipment shortage remains a significant challenge.

We continue to monitor the situation and will keep you updated. For any queries regarding specific bookings, please contact our Customer teams.

Source: joc.com