Chennai air cargo strike to hit carmakers

Strike to impact automakers who import components for their factories in and around Chennai

Import and export at the Air Cargo Complex here stopped on Friday after the clearing staff struck work.

Industry sources expressed concern for the factories in and around this city, especially automobile and electronics majors, as they import critical components. The automobile industry accounts for 12 per cent of the total import in this Complex.

In the past four months, this Complex has faced turbulent times due to a shortage of customs officers and frequent strikes or go-slows by the Ground Handling Agency (GHA) of the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

A V Vijayakumar, president, The Chennai Customs House Agents Association, said: “We have been pursuing these major concerns vigorously in various forums and also with various trade bodies.”

The association has around 1,000 members, with about 600-700 staffers in the Complex alone.

Between March 15 and April 14, import was 9,207 tonnes; it fell to 7,507 tonnes between April 15 and May 14. Similarly, export dropped between the two periods to 8,048 tonnes from 9,046 tonnes.

As noted, a large part of the imports are of automobile components for majors such as Hyundai, Ford and Nissan. Ford said, “We are working closely with authorities and the situation might impact us if the strike continues. We hope this returns to normalcy as quickly as possible.” Nissan declined to comment and mails sent to Hyundai were not answered.

The other major imports are of electronics and computers, imported by major companies such as Nokia, Dell, IBM and HP. The electronics imports are a fifth of the total.

Vijayakumar said there was a “complete lack of understanding of the serious issues by the authorities”.

The Association stated a major issue of concern in the Complex was a shortage of 40 per cent of Customs officers in Chennai from the sanctioned strength.

“While the quantity of officers were increased very recently, the quality of officers made available, not being conversant with the requirements, has not improved the situation. There is a daily pile-up of about 400 documents, representing 40 per cent of daily transactions. As a result, from a normal clearance time of two to three days, imports take six to seven days to get cleared, defeating the very purpose of air lifting,” said the Association.

The second issue was the strike by Bhadra International India Ltd, the GHA of AAI. In the past four months, there had been four strikes and two go-slows, from 12 hours to six days.

“There is no certainty of any time frame for handling import or export cargo. Unless there is drastic change and substantial improvement, Chennai Air Cargo will lose to neighbouring competitors,” said Vijayakumar.