Date Added: 29 June 2022
Trading with Sri Lanka? Speak with us first
Sri Lanka’s political and economic turmoil is prompting some shipping lines to detour to Indian ports instead of calling at Colombo, one of the key supply-chain hubs in Asia, adding more pressure to market conditions across the Indian sub-continent, for which Davies Turner offers comprehensive ocean and airfreight services.
Political protests, the foreign exchange crunch and a lack of fuel have slowed the number of trucks available to transport containers between Colombo’s terminals and supply chains, creating a growing backlog of boxes at the port that some shipping lines want to avoid.
Container shipping companies often make a stop at Colombo on Sri Lanka’s west coast to pick up or offload cargo while sailing on routes from Asia to Europe. However, a steady flow of container volume has headed to India’s ports in the past month, according to market reports, and we have considered switching hubs to Chennai, but actually unless the situation gets worse, we will stick with the Colombo hub for the time being.
Sri Lanka has been facing its worst financial crisis of the country’s independent history, with shortages of everything from food to oil. Fuel supplies are so low that the government told citizens not to queue for gasoline at filling stations. The nation has been trying to come up with cash to pay for oil that’s been sitting on tankers off its coast.
Our long-standing local partner has advised us to be cautious about truck shortages increasing in Colombo for inter-terminal transfer operations, with the potential to cause delays to loading vessels, and with inventory levels increasing, if the delay in the supply of fuel for trailers to the port increases, delays will creep in for the vessels too.
Increasingly, shipments that would typically take a two to four-week window from booking to sailing are now taking much longer, across all lanes into Europe and The USA – and then there is the potential dwell time on arrival at congested destination ports to also contend with and consider within the logistics equation.
Our network and expertise extend across the Indian subcontinent, with customers across a variety of verticals sourcing from and exporting to the region. We have established operations throughout Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and will always offer the most reliable options available within each market.
We are monitoring the evolving situation closely with our local network partners, so if you are currently shipping, or are thinking of shipping to and from Sri Lanka, or any of the Indian sub-continent markets, please contact ocean@daviesturner.co.uk / aircargo@daviesturner.co.uk or visit the relevant parts of this website.