Three Carriers Add Congestion Charge at Nehru Port

Three major ocean carriers covering the trade to and from India plan to impose an emergency congestion surcharge on all import containers handled at the Port of Nhava Sheva (Jawaharlal Nehru), the country’s largest container gateway.

Effective July 15, the surcharge will be $150 per 20-foot equivalent unit and $300 per 40-foot equivalent unit.

Orient Overseas Container Line, NYK Line and Hyundai Merchant Marine, in separate notices to the trade, said the surcharge is necessary to offset additional costs incurred as a result of increased congestion and rail delays at the west coast hub.

“Due to serious port congestion in Nhava Sheva, we will implement a port congestion surcharge for all inbound cargo including inland shipments,” OOCL said.

Persistent operational delays earlier prompted some shipping lines, including Maersk Line and CMA CGM, to divert northern hinterland cargo to the neighboring ports of Mundra and Pipavav.

According to the lines, the current surge in overall traffic volume coupled with the onset of heavy monsoon rains, which typically complicate intermodal operations, is likely to aggravate the situation in the coming weeks.

In a bid to clear a jam of northbound containers, state-owned rail operator Container Corp. of India recently made special arrangements to shift accumulated boxes en masse to its nearby Dronagiri Rail Terminal at no extra cost to lines, and deployed additional trains to facilitate speedy evacuation.

Nehru, with a port-run terminal and two private facilities, saw its throughput grow 17 percent during the April-May period from a year earlier to 751,000 TEUs. In fiscal 2009-10 ended March 31, it handled a record 4.06 million TEUs compared with 3.95 million TEUs the previous year. (source: JOCsailing)

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