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Vessel-handling services have been suspended or restricted across several major ports along India’s east coast since Monday, due to Cyclone Arnab warnings.
The severe storm made landfall on India’s eastern coastline this morning, bringing huge swells and gale winds across the region, according to reports.
One key gateway port that suspended all operations until further notice was Visakhapatnam, a critical feeder port for Maersk’s coverage out of India’s east coast, especially for cargo moving in and out of Kolkata.
Kuehne+Nagel told customers: “Potentially impacted container ports include Visakhapatnam, Gangavaram, and Krishnapatnam, all of which have received cyclone or storm warnings as Arnab approaches India’s east coast.”
Industry sources in India believe the port suspensions could inevitably cause congestion and delays to freight flow, but the scale will only be known when terminals fully reopen.
“Visakhapatnam terminals are slowly getting back to business, in tandem with government guidelines and updates,” one carrier official told The Loadstar. “The ports were told to keep operations suspended as part of contingency planning.”
According to the latest updates, the cyclonic storm claimed three lives in India’s Andhra Pradesh State, in addition to causing extensive damage to residential properties and utility installations in the region.
Several Indian ports had already been experiencing operational pressures due to widespread vessel bunching tied to delayed arrivals from Asian origin ports, and “the cyclone disruption is another blow to the supply chains”, said a Visakhapatnam-based ship agent.
Visakhapatnam handled 302,926 teu year-to-date through September, edging down from 308,861 teu year on year, according to data collected by The Loadstar.
Meanwhile, the authorities in Bangladesh issued similar cautionary alerts for ports as the cyclone threatened gusty weather over the northern Bay of Bengal and adjoining coastal areas.
“Cyclonic Storm Arnab has formed over the east-central and adjoining west-central Bay of Bengal and is forecast to intensify into a very severe cyclonic storm before making landfall along the Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coasts on 28 October,” London-based port agency service provider Inchcape Shipping Services told customers.
Congestion and operational disruption issues are not limited to the Indian coast. K+N also reported an average vessel waiting time of two days across terminals in Sri Lanka’s Colombo port, “due to ongoing transhipment congestion, missed feeder connections, vessel omissions and routing changes”, the company said.