The strike has cost exporters dear: for air-lifting a consignment to the United States or Europe it costs at least 300 per cent more than to ship it. The worst affected has been the garments exports industry. The Madras port accounts for nearly 50 per cent of garment exports from the country valued at over Rs 60 billion. Most of these shipments are to the US and Europe. In the past weeks, nearly 35 ships were stranded at the Madras harbour unable to get berthed.

These include over ten feeder vessels operating from here to the ports of Singapore, Colombo and Klang. This was the third strike in the past few months and has sent negative signals to international operators. The mooring crew struck work on August 30 to press for extensionof shift hours to 12, Rs 10,000 as advance against payment under an incentive scheme and a 50 per cent share in the allowance given to the pilot officers at the port. The Madras Port Trust employs nearly 13,000 workers.

S Senthilnathan, managing director of the Colombo-based freight operator, Expro Freight, said, "Garment exports have been the worst hit since most these consignments are time sensitive and could be rejected if they don't reach on time". The port has seen a sharp decline in freight handling in the past few days. "Normally we handle around 100,000 tonnes every day. For the last week this has come down to around 60,000 tonnes," said S Machendranathan, chairman of the Madras Port Trust.

Exporters were forced to look at alternate options. While some of the shipments were routed through Tuticorin in Kerala state, some freight operators airlifted some of the products to transhipment terminals in Singapore and Colombo from where they were moved to theirdestinations. R. Sukumar, general manager of Bengal Tiger Lines, one of the largest domestic operators between here and the ports of Colombo and Singapore, said: "As far as the exports of granite and food products (are concerned), the delay may not matter much.

But garments are transit-sensitive cargo and international shippers insist on air-freighting the containers if there is a delay of even two or three days since most big stores in Europe and the U.S. follow the just-in-time policy."