Mansoon Mayhem

Monsoon Mayhem:

 

Timely arrival of monsoon brings cheers to our spirits. The downside is a reverse crank on our export trade in containers from the largest container port in India – Nhava Sheva. Ships compete and chase to kiss the Windows. If you miss the kiss, you could be exiled to Jebelali or Mundra. Backlogs pile up in the transshipment ports of Singapore, & Malaysia driving panic and fear in the mind of the shipping lines. Windows shrink and queues lengthen for ships, trains and trailers. Imports are given the paramount priority and exports are treated as dirty little urchins. Ships are forced to leave after offloading all the imports if they are lucky and leave the exports behind. Unfair and punitive charges like shut-outs and storages are torpedoed on to the shipping lines by the terminals. The import pendency slowly and surely strangulate the terminal yards. The rails and roads grind to an unforeseen laxity. The combined effects of a sluggish infrastructure and unresponsive bureaucracy eats up productivity. That means for the same number of hours in a window we shall have significantly less number of moves compared to normal time  This has been happening every monsoon barring the periods of global melt-down's yesteryears.

 

Monsoon joins hands with our bureaucracy. Like our bureaucratic system, monsoon too cripples our roads, rails, and terminals. We spend enormous amount of funds for building roads and rails: but the leaky contracts and the divine rains devour them with predictable frequency and urgency.

 

The question is not about our flailing infrastructure buckling under the rains or about the drop in inevitable productivity. It's about how we react to it. It's about our priorities. It's about our ability to solve urgent problems with urgent means and manage our credibility and interests in a flatter world of today.

 

How do we sacrifice our much needed exports at the cost of imports? Exports can earn us hard money and sustainably support our growth. FDI  would loose its luster with a big trade deficit.  Albeit imports' significance on our economy, exports can not be snubbed at in a poor economy that has learnt to  stand on its own legs. Indian exports have to compete with countries like China or Vietnam. We have heavy odds for our exporters - both from outside and inside.  We must realize the importance of exports and put this as our first priority instead of kicking to its last. In other words, the ships calling our ports must load all their exports. Operationally, it is impossible to load the exports unless imports are discharged. One way of doing this is by asking the ships to unload the requisite volume of imports in a nearby port or an underutilized port for further mobilization by coastal shipping, rail or road at the expense of the importer. The terminal should guarantee the bare minimum moves per vessel to the shipping line that should cover all the export bookings and the balance import containers onboard.  Or else the imports need to restricted to make way for all the exports. However, the customs and port authorities need to act at tandem to give this legal and operational sanctity. There would be hard resistance to this from shipping lines and terminal operators. However, we need to appreciate the fact that this is an extra-ordinary infrastructural crunch, where our national resources need to support our exports first and imports second. 

Capt PS Rath
Econship Marine Pvt Ltd
Curry Hospitalities Pvt Ltd
+91 98 6720 6998