Regional Updates in Middle East & India

Updates on the impact of COVID-19 in Middle East & India

+++ last updated on 16 September +++


Summary about current situation:

• India – Authorities continue to adjust controls as needed. Cargo transit, specific industries, workplaces that require night operations, limited transport services and deliveries allowed. Strict curbs continue in containment zones. No effect on operations noted
• Bangladesh – Easing of restrictions nationwide. All offices and factories can open with protocols in place. Public transport can operate at full capacity
• Sri Lanka – Nationwide Lockdown extended until September 21, 2021. A 22:00 hrs - 04:00 hrs curfew remains in effect, with exceptions for essential workers. Interprovincial bus and train services remain suspended; all essential services function as normal. Colombo port and its three terminals function as normal
• Iraq – Authorities maintain ongoing restrictions. A nightly 00:01 hrs - 05:00 hrs curfew remains in place until further notice
• Kuwait – Several other COVID-19-related restrictions remain in place
• Pakistan – Authorities to ease business and transport controls in high-risk districts at varying levels from September 16, 2021. Stricter rules to remain in place in some areas  

Terminal Operations

All terminals slightly affected by labor reductions, but operations continue close to normal. Exceptions:

• Bangladesh – Chittagong berth congestion continues
• Sri Lanka – Inclement weather delays have resulted in higher turnaround time of vessels, resulting in cargo pile up. High dwell time continues
  

Railway Operations

No impact to report.

Truck Availability​

No impact to report.

Barge Availability

No impact to report.


Depots

No impact to report

Customer Service

Our counters in the Middle East are open by special permission. Please review the box “Related CustomerNEWS” to find out specifics for each country. If not listed, please check with your local office for any adjusted working hours.

• Syria - Hapag-Lloyd has removed booking restrictions to Syria from the following countries – United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. For more information, please contact your local Sales/Customer Service teams
  
• India – While our Mumbai office will continue to remain closed, counter remains open however; please consider using the seaway bill functionality for exports and telex release for import shipments to speed up collection of your documents. Our call center continues to operate normally however, due to possibly high influx of calls, we recommend opting for email communication as first choice. Delhi counter open with special permission as well. Due to total lock down in Tamil Nadu, Chennai counter closed - staff working from home and closely coordinating with customers
  
• UAE – All Delivery Order (D/O) requests and payments to submit via ODeX platform. Cash payments only accepted in limited amounts through Lulu exchange added to ODeX. Dubai counter is open with regular business day hours 
• Saudi Arabia – As per guidelines issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and effective August 1, 2021, only vaccinated persons will be permitted to enter Hapag-Lloyd offices
  
• For customer inquiries, we encourage customers to use email as the primary method of contact with our Customer Service teams, we are monitoring emails and answering them as expeditiously as possible.
• For urgent escalations only, you can still use phone calls. However please note that we are experiencing high call volumes and longer than normal waiting times.
• For vessel/container/booking status and sailing schedules information, customers should visit our Online Business section at our Hapag-Lloyd website.
  
• For faster BL release at destination, under the current COVID-19 conditions, we encourage customers to switch from OBL to SWB, if any assistance needed please reach out to your customer service documentation team.
• For payments, we encourage customers to use our online payment options explained in the separate “Related CustomerNEWS” section by country. If you cannot find information that you are looking for, please reach out to your local customer service department here.
• We strongly invite our customers to use our e-tools (Web-Booking and EASI) for submitting bookings and Shipping Instructions as well as our Hapag-Lloyd Navigator Dashboard to view all of your shipment information on one single screen.
  

Reach out to your local customer service representative here.