City exporters face Rs 4500 cr losses

Just when the city exporters were looking for another bumper export year, the rain gods have played havoc with their expectations. After Tuesday's unprecedented deluge, exporters who use the Mumbai ports - Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) and the Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal (NSICT) are facing losses upto Rs 4,500 crore.

"With the roads damaged and the rail traffic in the ports being held up, no cargo has moved out and exporters as a result are facing huge losses of upto Rs 4,500 crore," said Shyam Kumar Saraf, president, western region, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO).

"Most of the damages are to the exporters of perishable goods - such as fruits and vegetables and marine food products as no rakes went into the port due to heavy rains," he added.

The garment export industry too expects a cash loss of around Rs 300 crore and another Rs 100 crore in refurbishing costs for machinery and raw material after the flooding that followed the heavy rains last week. Approximately 200 units were flooded in the Jogeshwari, Saki Naka areas, said Amit Goyal, president of the Apparel Export Promotion Council (Apec).

Meanwhile, the port management of JNPT and NSICT held a core committee meeting today to work out a plan to resolve the crisis.

"From Thursday, we will start operating a single line out of the port and Concor has agreed to move 7-8 rakes on the north-bound traffic since Western Railway is operational. The North-East corridor to Nagpur will be restored only by the August 25," said Ravi Budhiraja, chairman of JNPT.

Currently, there are 9,677 TEUs of cargo waiting to be moved out of the terminals at JNPT. Normally, Concor operates around 14-15 rakes from the port.

Budhiraja added that a part of the cargo will also be moved out to the Mumbai port on barges. Other measures to control congestion and speed up cargo processing include, moving out the cargo booked for rail to the road wherever possible. Budhiraja said that the charges will be waived off in this instance.

Shipping lines too have been asked to bring only as much cargo as they plan to take on from the port. The port management has also decided to waive off upto 80 per cent of the rental charges for containers.

Budhiraja added that the damage to the feeder roads needs to be assessed by the respective state governments and that the port at the moment has no update on that.

Garment exporters in the city, meanwhile, are moving their cargo out of Mumbai airport to other airports in Chennai and Bangalore.

"We have already missed deadlines and if we don't move the cargo now, we will end up getting five cents for pieces that we normally sell for five dollars," Goyal added.