Due to an equipment upgrade project, Mumbai suspended the use of a berth for six months to increase the productivity and capacity of APM Terminal (also known as India Gateway Terminal (GTI)), which brought heavy pressure to the port's other terminals. The capacity has dropped significantly, causing India's largest container port-Navasheva Port Nhava Sheva Port(JNPT) to face serious congestion.
Ocean carriers serving India's Nhava Sheva port (JNPT) have warned customers that as the country's busiest public gateway is grappling with operational challenges from terminal capacity pressures, long truck queues and excessive gate delays can affect cargo flows.
Relevant people pointed out that due to the shipping company constantly changing berthing docks, affected by the complexity of the berthing window, ship accumulation has become a major problem for JNPT. What's worse, BMCT has restricted the temporary berthing window, all docks have experienced high storage yard inventory levels, and DP World's two facilities have also been full.
Maersk (India) stated that this [disruption] resulted in a conglomeration of vessels, affecting sailing schedules, and waiting times could increase, resulting in cargo owners potentially missing feeder vessels and cargo shipment times. Sources at other major liners, including Hapag-Lloyd (Hapag-Lloyd) and COSCO Shipping (Cosco Shipping), also expressed these concerns.
APMT Mumbai stated that it is making every effort to mitigate the impact of capacity constraints, by reducing vessel idle time, improving operational efficiency, and being flexible to ensure that the impact is minimal to meet the maximum demand for a berth. APMT also noted that the $0.115 billion billion Fit for the Future project, announced last February, will "significantly increase berth productivity", thereby driving vessel turnaround and operating cost advantages for carrier customers.
Fiscal year-end shipping peak with delays
Sunil Vaswani, executive director of the Container Shipping Association (India), said there are other issues besides berth closures that are likely to tighten ship operations, notably DP World Nhava Sheva's ongoing shortage of refrigerated plugs and PSA Mumbai's upcoming maintenance dredging activities. He added that while the JNPT is taking steps to do what it can to help trade, the situation remains tense.
the biggest concern, according to Vaswani, is that due to the typical fiscal year-end shipping peak, coupled with seasonal fruit export demand, JNPT will have a significant peak in freight this month, and bottlenecks have emerged. India's fiscal year runs from April to March.
Forwardernet.com