Prime Minister Modi last week announced a three-week lockdown. There\u2019s a lot of confusion on whether the measures would halt operations at India\u2019s ports, according to the Indian newspaper The Economic Times.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n Logistics were said to be exempted from the restrictions as the Indian Ministry of Shipping announced on 23 March 2020 that \u201ctransport service for carriage of goods by water and any service connected with loading, unloading, movement or storage of goods in any port are an essential service\u201d. Therefore Shipex strongly advises against shipping new cargo to India for the time being. <\/strong>Shippers that want to proceed with new shipments have to take into account serious delays, possible discharge of containers at other ports and\/or huge extra costs.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n Please contact our team with regard to your pending shipments.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MARKET UPDATE ON LOGISTICS IN INDIA – CHAOS IN PORTS Prime Minister Modi last week announced a three-week lockdown. There\u2019s a lot of confusion on whether the measures would halt operations at India\u2019s ports, according to the Indian newspaper The Economic Times. Logistics were said to be exempted from the restrictions as the Indian Ministry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
But on the other hand the government has told the major ports that the coronavirus fight is a valid reason to halt some port operations and advised ports to consider the Covid-19 pandemic as grounds for invoking force majeure. P.L. Haranadh, deputy chairman at Visakhapatnam Port Trust, a government-owned port told the Economic Times that \u201coperations have slowed because several staff may be reluctant to come to work fearing health issues. With limited resources, we\u2019re doing our best to ensure that supplies of essential commodities, such as coal, crude oil and containers are maintained.\u201d
Nevertheless \u201cthere are widespread reports of disruption across land, sea and air\u201d, according to The Loadstar. Several sources indicate that there are serious problems with clearance of import cargo by the customs, lack of inland trucking capacity, \u2026 resulting in chaos. Drivers would have suspended their services as they are afraid of the virus, also due to lack of government permits, police controls, inter-state border closings, etc. Additionally a 14 day quarantine on ships calling Indian ports has caused delays and extra costs for shipping lines.
\u201cThe movement of export and import containers by road has virtually come to a standstill,\u201d Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust [JNPT] said in a trade advisory. \u201cWhile vessels continue to be handled at all the port terminals, the gate-in of export and evacuation of import containers is not happening.\u201d We got confirmation from several logistics companies that they had to suspend their operations temporarily and that there\u2019s a backlog of shipments to be cleared.
Moreover, courier services are not operational anymore, resulting in envelops with transport documents (e.g. certificates, Bill of Lading, \u2026) that are stuck somewhere and blocking a timely cargo release.<\/p>\r\n