Major ports in Bangladesh and India had to temporarily suspend operations Sunday and Monday after Cyclone Remal hammered the coasts of both countries.
Cyclone Remal was the first tropical storm of the season for the South Asian countries, killing at least 23 people. More than 13 million citizens lost electricity, with the torrential downpours causing landslides in the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram.
Remal made landfall near Bangladesh’s southern port of Mongla and the neighboring Sagar Islands of India around 9 p.m. local time on Sunday. Operations at Mongla, including the loading and unloading of goods, were suspended until Tuesday morning.
Services at another major Bangladeshi hub, the Port of Chittagong, were suspended for 54 hours until noon Tuesday.
Operations in India’s West Bengali ports, including the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port in Kolkata, suspended all cargo and container handling operations for 12 hours starting 6 p.m. Sunday. Railway operations in the port area were also halted during the time.
Flight operations at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata were postponed for 21 hours from Sunday to Monday due to the storm. According to the airport authorities, 170 domestic flights and 28 international flights were scheduled to depart from the airport.
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And in Chittagong, Shah Amanat International Airport grounded flights for 17 hours. Operations resumed at 5 a.m. Monday. During the period, nine domestic flights and seven international flights were cancelled.
As of early Tuesday morning, the suspensions at the seaports have caused congestion and delays, according to a report from global supply chain publication The Loadstar. The publication’s Bangladesh correspondent said the Chittagong port yards are now faced with a backlog of more than 39,000 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers.
Before the hurricane made landfall, Sri Lanka’s Port of Colombo also saw berthing delays late last week due to bad weather, the Loadstar report said. The port serves as an important regional hub that handles boxes for both Bangladesh and India, and has seen more pressure in recent months related to the rerouting of ships away from the Red Sea.
According to data from supply chain visibility platform GoComet, Colombo has an estimated four-day delay for ships entering the port.
The port delays could hold up some apparel goods manufactured in Bangladesh or India by a few days. The South Asian countries are two of the biggest apparel exporters in the world, with Bangladesh coming in as the third-largest exporter at $45.3 billion per year and India serving as the sixth-largest at $17.7 billion annually, according to the World Trade Organization.
Delays could become more troubling as global ports are forced to take on more capacity as issues like the Red Sea diversions.
According to a new report from Bank of America, worsening port congestion has removed more than 2 percent of container vessel supply since March. The report said Singapore, Dubai and the Mediterranean Sea remain congestion hot spots, while container availability in Asia remains tight.
And another report from container consultancy Linerlytica shared concerns about Singapore, saying that berthing delays are now up to seven days, with total capacity waiting to berth rising to 450,000 TEUs in recent days.
“The severe congestion has forced some carriers to omit their planned Singapore port calls, which will exacerbate the problem at downstream ports that will have to handle additional volumes,” Linerlytica said.
Major seaports in China, including Shanghai and Qingdao, are also experiencing a significant buildup of container ships at anchor.
“Potential disruptions can be seen in ports in Northern China that are starting to experience congestion caused by container availability due to a combination of Red Sea-related disruptions (containers are on the water for longer) and buildups of empty containers in ports where they are not needed,” said S&P Global Market Intelligence in an analysis Tuesday.
Coinciding with the delays and congestion is the ongoing escalation of ocean spot freight rates, which have again shot up on a week-over-week basis. The Drewry World Container Index (WCI) hit a new high for the year on Thursday, increasing 16 percent to $4,072 per 40-foot container this week.
Since May 2, the WCI has skyrocketed 49 percent after three straight weeks of sharp increases. The rising rates align with the congestion in China, with the four largest jumps per container price coming from trade lanes originating out of Shanghai.