KARACHI, Oct 12: None of the 32 shipping lines, operating under seven consortia, had suspended operations from Pakistan and continued to load and unload the cargoes to and from the two main ports: Port Qasim and Karachi Port, shipping circles told Dawn on Friday.

Besides the shipping lines, numerous independent feeder services were also doing their normal operations from these ports, the sources said.

The sources said that around 12 shipping lines were presently operating to and from Port Qasim and catering to the needs of various destinations around the world.

Similarly, around 20 shipping lines report at Karachi port for loading and unloading of import and export cargoes of the country having annual turnover of about 26 million tons, comprising 14 million tons liquid cargo and 12 million tons dry cargo, the sources said.

Normally large size container carriers have a capacity of carrying between 2,800 to 3,200 TEU containers and a small size vessel used for feeder service carries between 300 to 400 TEU containers.

The sources said that each consortium or conference line has around five to six shipping lines under its umbrella to cater to the needs in a region they operate. The main objective of forming consortia is to ensure cost efficient operations for each member shipping line.

These conference lines, which operate on regional basis, load and unload cargoes from different ports on behalf of their member shipping lines, which assist them to cut their operational cost, the sources said.

Presently the biggest consortium of shipping lines operating from Port Qasim is Europe, Pakistan, India Consortium. The other consortia operating from country’s two sea ports including such shipping lines as P&O Lloyds, Merck SeaLand, APL-NOL, CMACGM, OOCL, NYK Lines, Hyundai, Wanhai.

The chairman, All Pakistan Shipping Association (APSA), Mohammad Farrukh Qaisar refuting reports that some shipping lines had cancelled their operations from Pakistan, said that they were contesting the imposition of ‘war risk premium’ of $150 per TEU container by the underwriters mostly based in London.

He said, “there stands no justification whatsoever to impose such extra charges when no war is going on in the sea or the region where these shipping lines are presently operating.”

Farruk Qaisar said these charges were extra burden on the country’s economy as millions of dollars would go for handling a traffic of around 0.7 million TEU containers per annum by the two ports.

He said that $3.5 to $4 per ton would go in extra payments towards war risk premium for bulk cargoes.

Instead of getting relief and incentives from the West, he said, “our economy is being burdened with such extra charges which are having crippling effects on our external trade.”

He said that it was more disappointing that even such steps had not been taken to save the economy, which were wholly and squarely related with internal matters such as quick payments of sales tax and duty drawback refunds, or relaxation in taxations.