Elsevier

Transport Policy

Volume 110, September 2021, Pages 191-203
Transport Policy

Impact of COVID-19 on the Indian seaport transportation and maritime supply chain

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2021.05.011Get rights and content

Highlights

  • With the outbreak of COVID-19, maritime industry accounting to 90% of the international trade has been impacted.

  • The major seaports of India handle about 60% of the country's total cargo traffic.

  • This paper examines implications of COVID-19 on Indian major ports by identifying patterns for quantitative performance data before & during the COVID-19 crisis.

  • This study explores & discusses expert's views about impact, preparedness, response, and recovery aspects for the maritime-related sector in India.

  • The results for quantitative performance data for major seaports in India indicate negative growth in during COVID-19 compared to pre COVID-19 period.

  • The expert survey result suggests a negative impact of COVID-19, and there is a need to develop future strategies by maritime organizations.

  • The overall findings of the study assist in formulating maritime strategies by enhancing supply chain resilience and sustainable business recovery process while preparing for a post-COVID-19 crisis in Indian maritime Context.

Abstract

Impacts of COVID-19 in maritime transportation and its related policy measures have been investigated by more and more organizations and researchers across the world. This paper aims to examine the impacts of COVID-19 on seaport transportation and the maritime supply chain field and its related issues in India. Secondary data are used to analyze the performance indicators of major seaports in India before and during the COVID-19 crisis. We further explore and discuss the expert's views about the impact, preparedness, response, and recovery aspects for the maritime-related sector in India. The results on the quantitative performance of Indian major seaports during the COVID-19 indicate a negative growth in the cargo traffic and a decrease in the number of vessel traffic compared to pre-COVID-19. The expert survey results suggest a lack of preparedness for COVID-19 and the need for developing future strategies by maritime organizations. The overall findings of the study shall assist in formulating maritime strategies by enhancing supply chain resilience and sustainable business recovery process while preparing for a post-COVID-19 crisis. The study also notes that the Covid-19 crisis is still an ongoing concern, as the government, maritime organizations, and stakeholders face towards providing vaccine and remedial treatment to infected people. Further, this study can be expanded to the global maritime supply chain business context and to conduct interdisciplinary research in marine technical fields and maritime environment to measure the impact of COVID-19.

Keywords

COVID-19
India
Seaports
Maritime
Supply chain
Stakeholders
Sustainability

Cited by (0)

Prathvi Thumbe Narasimha is a doctoral student in the Department of School of Management, NITK, Surathkal, Karnataka, India. He has completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Information Science and M.Tech in Engineering Management. His current areas of research are port sustainability, information systems in ports, maritime economics, and port logistics management. He has work experience of eight years in Indian major seaport in the field of IT, Finance, administration and operations.

Dr. Pradyot Ranjan Jena is Associate Professor in the Department of School of Management, NITK, Surathkal, Karnataka, India. He has reviewed articles for journals which include: World Development, Ecological Economics, Agricultural Economics, Applied Economic Perspective and Policy, Journal of Cleaner Production, Agribusiness, Environment and Development Economics, Regional Environmental Change, Food Security, Development Policy Review and Journal of Agricultural Economics. His work has overall citations of 637 with h-index of 12 and i10-index of 13. Currently he is in the Editorial board of journal International Journal of Business and Management Tomorrow published from Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, India.

Dr. Ritanjali Majhi is Associate Professor in the Department of School of Management, NITK, Surathkal, Karnataka, India. She has expertise in the field of Green Marketing, Big data Analysis, Consumer decision making, Time series Prediction, Artificial intelligence and soft and evolutionary application to Management, Marketing effectiveness metrics, E-Marketing, and Marketing Analytics. She has more than 15 years experience of research with publication in high impact factor journals and has worked on research project funded by Indian government. She has published 98 research papers in various referred International journals and conferences. Her total numbers of citations are 1110 with h-index of 13 and i-10 index of 15.

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