News / CMA CGM switches box ship call to Chennai as Ennore struggles

APL Boston at Chennai Photo: port sources

CMA CGM has had to reshuffle a containership call that it routinely holds at Adani Ennore Container Terminal (AECT) in southern India, because of the disruption at the port.

The APL Boston, part of the large-vessel fleet on CMA/MSC’s NEWMO (India-North Europe-Mediterranean) service was relocated to  Chennai Container Terminal after failing to secure a berth at Ennore, despite waiting for two days.

CMA CGM Agencies (India) said: “This will allow us to proceed with loading the export containers already at the terminal. Our priority remains to clear as many export containers as possible.”

But local port sources told The Loadstar the carrier had moved the 9,326 teu APL Boston to Chennai  to discharge imports rather than delay the voyage further.

Ennore has been facing power outages for the past week, on top of capacity pressure from a flurry of unscheduled or ad-hoc transhipment ship calls from MSC, taking advantage of its ownership interest in AECT.

“Ennore had cargo yards clogged with containers that could not get loaded onto the scheduled sailings,” a Chennai-based ship agent told The Loadstar.

“And available berthing windows were being allotted out of turn, creating a chaotic situation for vessel schedules.”

Sources also noted that the logjam had forced some vessel call switches from Ennore to Kattupalli Port, also an Adani Group facility along the Chennai coast.

NEWMO began direct calls to Ennore last year, prioritising over Chennai for faster turnarounds and better productivity, as Ennore has more advanced and sophisticated harbour cranes and better draught levels.

Using a fleet of 17 ships in the new routing flow, the weekly connection has stops at London Gateway, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp, Le Havre, Valencia, La Spezia, Fos Sur Mer, Pointe Des Galets, Port Louis, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Fremantle, Singapore, Ennore and Colombo, on a declared 119-day round-trip rotation.

The APL Boston call also marked a milestone for Chennai as it became the deepest-draught containership handled.  The previous record was a call from the CMA CGM Mozart in January 2017, according to port sources.

Ennore saw some 61,000 teu in April, up from 49,000 teu a year earlier, while Chennai’s relative volume was up to 135,000 teu, from 124,000 teu, according to port data.

On a broader note, major Indian government ports have seen a big jump in transhipment loads in recent months, in April combined movement soared to some 53,000 teu, from 16,500 teu year on year, data shows. Sources believe this spike reflects the cargo diversions linked to the Red Sea crisis.

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