How India Is Tackling The Suez Canal Hiccup

The Suez Canal is experiencing a blockage- it is literally a traffic jam out there.  And Indian trade might have reasons to worry about its schedules if this continues any longer than a few days.  The only ones not worrying are the Indian shipping companies like the Great Eastern Shipping or Essar Shipping. 

Blame it on the Ever Given, a gold class container ship that is wedged diagonally across the waterway and has thrown the schedules of all other ship vessels haywire. 

The container went jam due to weather conditions and it might take weeks before it can be dislodged from sea. 

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India has already started to work a fourfold strategy to tackle this new problem at sea.  According to the plan, shipping lines have been advised through CSLA to explore the option of re-routing of ships via the Cape of Good Hope which is likely to take 15 additional days.

The water route is used by India to traverse business with North America, South America and Europe. The plan will definitely entail rerouting vessels, prioritizing perishable cargo, stabilizing freight rates, and handling expected bunching-up at Indian ports.

All this is expected to delay delivery schedules amongst other logistic challenges. However, the good news is that freight rates will not be affected and CSLA has given its word on that. 

The strategy comes as it becomes clear that the blockage may not be cleared before weeks into April. A special emergency meeting for then chaired by the special secretary (logistics) in the commerce ministry Pawan Agarwal and attended by officials from the ministry of ports, shipping and waterways; Container Shipping Lines Association (CSLA) and Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO).