Impact on Thai importers / exporters from India-Pakistan conflict

Impact on Thai importers / exporters from India-Pakistan conflict

 

The conflict between India and Pakistan is nothing new. The two countries have had long-standing tensions ever since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, when the former British India split into two nations—India and Pakistan. Since then, the two countries have fought two wars over the disputed territory.

 

In 2019, India’s parliament revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, claiming that security in the region had improved and that anti-India insurgent groups had been suppressed.

 

However, on April 22, 2025, 26 tourists were shot dead in Pahalgam, India, reigniting tensions between the two nations.

 

From the violent situation that occurred, both governments have imposed trade restrictions, vessels flagged under India are not being allowed at Pakistani ports, and similarly, Pakistani-flagged vessels are not permitted to call at Indian ports.

And, Pakistan has restricted its airspace for Indian carriers as well.

(all airports and seaports in Pakistan are operational)

 



 

How does the India-Pakistan conflict affect Thai import-export businesses?

some shipping lines have begun suspend routes to Northwest Indian ports and Pakistani ports (such as Karachi Port) citing safety concerns. This will lead to longer shipping times for goods destined to these regions.

 

While some shipping lines still offer services to Karachi Port, but transporting the goods to Pakistan remains challenging due to limited capacity, leading to rapid booking saturation.

 

The cancellation of certain voyages has forced shipping lines to revise their sailing schedules through vessel swaps. This has led to increased container repositioning between berths at Laem Chabang Port, along with greater container accumulation at ports. The resulting congestion has reduced available storage space for containers, potentially causing longer lead times for handling both laden and empty containers.

Consequently, importers and exporters need to allocate additional buffer time for container returns to meet respective voyage cut-off times."

 

Recommendations for Exporter transporting goods on the India – Pakistan route, including the Red Sea and Sudan routes.

- Plan your transportation in advance to arrange for services providers to reach the area.

- communication with their shipping lines to monitor operational updates, particularly changes to sailing schedules, revised transit times, and any potential additional charges, in order to facilitate negotiations with trading partners.

- Who utilizing Laem Chabang Port services, proper time management is essential when handling laden and empty container pickups and returns to accommodate potential port traffic congestion."

 

We are hoping situation will be resolved soon in an amicable manner.

 

 

References

https://tnsc.com/index.php/2025/05/09/indpak2025/

https://www.bbc.com/thai/articles/c3dkz3r0302o