According to sources, the logistics sector is struggling with about 9,000 cargo ships delayed or waiting in ports across Europe and West Asia. The situation does not appear to be improving anytime soon, with the Russia-Ukraine conflict ongoing and lockdowns in multiple Chinese cities due to COVID-19 worries. Lockdowns in China have played a significant part in this. “About 20% of the world’s – roughly 9,000 active container ships – are currently delayed in traffic jams outside crowded ports, with China accounting for 30% of the backlog,” said VS Parthasarathy, Vice Chairman of Allcargo Group.
The number of ships waiting to load or unload has almost doubled compared to February, he added.
Sunil K Vaswani, Executive Director at Container Shipping Lines Association (India) echoed this adding that “Imports into India are getting delayed by about 2-3 weeks,” he said.
With exports from China getting impacted, there is an opportunity for the Indian exporters to tap. “There is more space for vessels from India, particularly on the US west coast and to Latin America west coast. So that gives greater opportunity for the Indian trade,” said Vaswani.
