A leading shipping line, Maersk Sealand, operating twice weekly service for Europe and the United States of America (USA) from the Port Qasim, has announced shipping delays due to surge in the import volumes and adverse weather conditions.
The weekly sailing is on Tuesday and Thursday with cut off on Monday and Wednesday respectively.
In a notice to the traders, the shipping line, admitting few delays in sailing schedule mainly due to monsoon season resulting in draft restrictions and rough tides, said the vessels had not been able to sail fast enough to enter the port area as per schedule.
It further said that due to surge in recent import volumes and anomalies in schedules, the line was left with a huge backlog at Salalah, destined either for Karachi or the Port Qasim.
To clear that feeder vessels leaving Salalah are going full and this is not helping the transit time, as these vessels need more time in port for loading and discharging.
The foggy condition at Salalah is delaying operations there, aggravating the seriousness of the situation.
The exporters have been informed that due to these reasons the vessels, leaving Port Qasim, are arriving Salalah within their designated berthing and are thus required to wait, resulting in rolling/missing of mother vessel connections.
Maersk Sealand management regretted that "we are not able to meet our schedules. We are keeping a close eye on the developments and will be updating you," it said.