Chronic congestion at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP) in Maharashtra, which accounts for nearly 60 percent of India's container traffic, is pushing the Indian maritime industry, already hit hard by the global trade slowdown, into a tighter corner, reported The Economic Times.
With global trading volumes shrinking, cargo has piled up at the port as traders look to service the domestic rather than the export-import segment. Inadequate container rail services, a long-standing problem at the port, has also aggravated the situation for container companies.
The three container terminals at JNP - NSICT, GTI and JNPT -- have seen a pile-up of approximately 18,000 TEUS of import container cargos, as opposed to 7,000 to 8,000 TEUs in normal times, said an official who did not wish to be named.
North-bound cargo, particularly, is stuck with some inland container depots in the region not accepting any new containers. Container companies are not the only ones to be hit. Shipping lines have to bear an additional burden of around US$70,000 to $80,000 per day in ground rent alone on account of the congestion, said a company official, who did not wish to be named.
End-user industries have been at the receiving end, too. A senior official of the Indian maritime industry, who did not wish to be named, said: "The pile-up of import cargo at the country's largest port is creating operational difficulties for our clients in industries such as consumer electronics, as they depend on imports for meeting certain input requirements."
According to Deepak Tiwari, chairman of the Container Shipping Lines Association (India), inadequate container rail service has slowed down the movement of cargo from JNP in the past two three months. On an average, the three container terminals can together handle approximately 1,800 TEUs per day (approximately 20 trains daily, each carrying 90 TEUs).
Concor and the private container train operators together can run a maximum of 25 trains daily. However, this number is down to 18 as operators prefer to service domestic lines, and the per-day evacuation has dropped by nearly 15-20 percent over the past two months.
The lack of separate berthing facilities at major ports, inadequate connectivity with road and rail networks and few container trains have always been roadblocks for the industry, but the pile-up has been particularly acute since March.
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