The Hindu Business Line : Delayed availability of containers — Tea shipments thru Amingaon ICD likely to continue till Feb

TEA shipments through the Amingaon (Guwahati) inland container depot (ICD) are likely to continue for a longer period this year than the previous years due to delayed availability of containers, particularly the forty feet containers (FEUs) in August and September.

As a result, the shipments were delayed and the season, likely to continue till February, might end up with a slightly higher throughput than last year's (2003-04) 1,905 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), according to shipping sources.

However, the trend so far presents a different picture. Till end-October, 17 rakes moved out of ICD with a throughput of 1,283 TEUs. During the same period last year, the throughput was 1,392 TEUs in 19 rakes. In other words, till October this year, ICD handled fewer rakes and, therefore, smaller number of boxes, the shortfall being in excess of 100 TEU, compared to the same period last year.

The delayed start of the regular shipment this season too, it is believed, is another reason for this. The first shipment this year took place in end-June compared to May last year.

The shipping boom has thrown up myriad problems causing difficulties for shippers in the region. The delayed availability of forty feet containers is one such problem. Other problems include non-availability of slots in mainline vessels at Singapore and Colombo (the problem was more at Singapore than at Colombo) and non-availability of mainline vessels on charter on time, forcing many mainline operators to blank off. No wonder, there were rollovers.

The boom in shipments from South East Asia to the US and Europe has created such a situation that mainline operators in Singapore and Colombo find it hard to allot slots in mainline vessels for UK or US-bound cargo brought from the sub-continent by feeder vessels.

The problems could not always be tackled by placing more vessels on charter, since vessels too were not available. If available, it was only at a high cost. The Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) learnt it the hard way.

But the current situation has benefited SCI with regard to ICD shipments. SCI, which handled the container availability crisis more deftly than others, handled more boxes than last year.

Out of a total shipment of 1,283 TEUs till end-October, the share of the UK/Continent was 988 TEUs (77 per cent of the total movement). SCI, which offers sailings only to the UK/Continent, handled 660 TEUs or about 67 per cent of the total shipments to the UK/Continent. The performance of other shipping lines, all foreign, has been rather dismal. P&O handled 278 TEUs to the UK/Continent or 28 per cent, Maersk 10 TEUs, APL four TEUs and K Line 36 TEUs.

Although K Line participated in the Amingaon shipment for the first time this year, it did not perform too badly with a total throughput so far of 82 TEUs of which 36 TEUs was for the UK/Continent and the balance 56 TEUs for non-UK/Continent ports.

Total non-UK shipments so far have been of the order of 295 TEUs or 23 per cent of the total movement. Of the non-UK shipments, Sri Lanka accounted for the largest share with 111 TEUs followed by UAE with 90 TEUs, Canada (22 TEUs), Japan and the US (19 TEUs each), Indonesia and Pakistan (12 TEUs each), Iran (six TEUs) and Singapore (four TEUs). Among the shipping lines, APL tops the list with a throughput of 106 TEUs or 36 per cent of the total movement to non-UK ports, followed by K Line with 19 per cent (56 TEUs), P&O with 18 per cent (53 TEUs), SCI with 15 per cent (44 TEUs) and Maersk with 12 per cent (36 TEUs).

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