After festival high in October, logistics sector sees slow November

After a period of strong activity in October 2023 because of the festival season, there was a slowdown in November 2023 for companies that transport goods, says an Emkay Research report.

"The generation of GST electronic waybills, which are documents for tracking goods shipments, didn't grow as much as it did in October. It only increased by 9 per cent compared to the same time last year, which is much less than the 30 per cent growth seen in October. The number of goods passing through major ports increased by 17 per cent compared to last year, which is roughly 71 million tons, and the number of containers also went up by 7 per cent," it says.

"Aviation fuel prices went down by 9 per cent from October to December 2023, which is good news for a company called Blue Dart Express," it adds.

Emkay further says the recent terrorist attacks in the Red Sea region have disrupted the movement of containers between Asia and Europe. This has caused container shipping rates to go up by 20-25 per cent each month on the route between Shanghai and Rotterdam.

"Furthermore, cargo ships are taking longer routes to avoid the Suez Canal, which means fewer containers might be available at Indian ports for a while. This situation could create a short-term problem of not having enough containers at Indian ports, which would affect railway logistics companies like Container Corporation of India and Gateway Distriparks," it says.

Read the Emkay report here.