Skip to main content

AFTERMATH OF SUEZ CANAL CRISIS FOR INDIA


The Taiwan-run but Panama flagged MV EVER GIVEN, a 400m long and 59m wide vessel, which was stranded in Egypt’s Suez Canal for six days was finally refloated on Monday. The blockage had already hit world oil markets, with crude oil prices surging 6%, with more than 100 ships stuck on either side. The blockage of the Suez Canal, which connects Asia to Europe, has potentially caused serious consequences on international trade and commerce. Any blockage of the Suez Canal means all ships between Europe and Asia must circumnavigate the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.

India is the top importer of crude oil and two-thirds of India’s crude oil coming from the gulf regions via the Suez Canal. India may majorly face losses due to its import-export of ethane with the USA and imports of crude oil from Latin America. India stands sixth among exporters of crude oil after countries like Russia, Saudi Arabia, Libya, etc. India’s shipments of oil, textiles, furniture, cotton, auto components, and machine parts to Europe, North America and South America could get delayed by 10-15 days. Sanjay Bhatia, Co-Founder of freight forwarding agency Freightwalla, told Construction World, “While exports won't be affected much in March, the impact may get considerably evident by May-June as we will have to wait and see how shipping lines respond to this challenge. Right now it is a very fluid.. situation, however, the knock-on effects of this could be quite sizable, similar to how we are still dealing with the after-effects of the pandemic lockdowns.”


Even if the already efficient Suez Canal operates at 100% efficiency, the backlog that the vessel has created itself will take a substantial amount of time to clear, and “the domino effect is expected to sustain for the medium term,” Bhatia said. Because of the week-long jam in the canal, an imbalance may be created in the demand-supply chain, escalating freight rates for vessels.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stagflation: A Threat to India

India is entering into the stage of stagflation, just 2 years ago it was expanding at 8% and emerging as a major global player, the situation has come down to this. With higher prices of food, The new citizenship act, and the central bank's target, India is meeting its slowest development in a decade. The inflation in December 2019 increased to 7.35 percent which was the highest since July 2014, which is past the RBI limit of 6%. But what led to this situation? We have had demonetization in 2016, the implementation of GST followed by many other policies but what led to this?  Let's look at some facts. The consumption of volatile oil makes up about 60% of gross domestic product which puts off all the investment plans. Economic growth in the fiscal year through March 31 is set to slow to an estimated 5%. Teresa John, an economist at Nirmal Bang Equities Pvt in Mumbai, quoted “The recovery is likely to be very gradual and a stagflation scenario is likely. ” The government has...

Changing Environment For Local Business In Sri Lanka; Government Initiates The Revolution

Local industries and businesses are the backbone of the economy of any country. Additionally, Sri Lankan Government defines a local company as one with a minimum ownership of 51% of a Sri Lankan. To help these companies grow, the Sri Lankan Finance Ministry has proclaimed a circular enlisting the priorities to the local companies. Moreover, this move from the government may bring some salient alterations in the condition of the local manufacturers. The government has also come with up steps that will augment the local industries across the different domains. These domains include IT sector, construction, etc. The circular, as issued by the government includes relevant documentation regarding sourcing of resources and products. Additionally, sources point towards the fact that the government is hoping to extend support to the domestic sector and help them grow. Besides, the major focus is on the three sectors- IT software and hardware, construction and furniture and allied products. Pos...

Significance of the “Developed Country” Tag for India

By Xeena Mehta The officials of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) uphold a list of countries that categorises countries as “developing”, “developed”, and “least-developed”. Countries that are classified as “developing” have permissions to export certain goods to the U.S. without being hit by heavy legal tariffs that are bind to be imposed on goods from “developed” countries. The “developing country” tag was originated by U.S. Trade Act of 1974, to aid poor countries develop faster. World Trade Organization also acceded to grant trade benefits to countries that were classified as poor. If noticed we can see that about two-thirds of countries that are members of the WTO classify themselves as “developing” countries and avail fore deals. Any such classification of whether a country is “developing” or not is entirely objective. While the economic progress achieved by India and China have achieved over the last few decades is seen as a valid reason to get rid of their s...