Indian Ports Are Maxed Out
The abrupt halt at APM Terminals Pipavav for the last two weeks put added pressure on the whole supply chain on top of Nhava Sheva (JNPT) decommissioned port for equipment upgrades. This upgrade project started in February and is ongoing till August. Mundra Port became the main port, but recently had to reroute ships cause there was just too much for it to handle. Train turnarounds have be causing havoc because of limited space and delaying the gate in/out flows.
“It has been noticed and observed that due to the increased backlog, the port authority is not able to follow FIFO [first-in, first-out] pattern while loading of import containers on trains, resulting in high dwell times at Mundra,” Maersk (India) said in a customer advisory. “Moreover, export train movements to Mundra are also getting impacted due to the en route congestion in rail divisions.”
This comes on the heels of Cyclone Biparjoy predicted to make landfall on Thursday- forcing all ports on the Gujarat coastline to shut, including Mundra, Pipavav and Hazira. Maersk has already said four scheduled calls this week at Mundra will be impacted.
Large scale vessel bunching and volumes of containers already in port is making reopening a very big hassle.