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The congestion plaguing India’s Mundra Port over the past week continues to cause multiple operational troubles for container lines working on Indian trades, according to industry sources.

Because of the logjam that developed after Cyclone Biparjoy-related disruptions, the port has been operating on an erratic berthing window system.

Carriers, offering regular calls at Mundra, have had challenges connecting all planned container loads due to gate restrictions. A trade notice issued by Maersk this week is evidence of that concern.

“We tried to extend cut offs, for which we have sent an advisory with revised cut off but due to congestion at the port, the terminal is not accepting the revised cut-off,” the carrier said. “We are not able to accept any more cargo on the current vessel (CMA CGM Lebu 325W).”

Maersk has also noted similar loading restrictions on the sailing Lana 325S and said boxes left behind would be rolled over to the next vessel Maersk Brooklyn.

CMA CGM also told customers that its current sailing on the MIDAS2 service, the CMA CGM Quelimane, is being delayed in its call at Mundra. “Customers are requested to plan the shipments accordingly,” the French liner noted.

The Container Shipping Lines Association (CSLA), which represents foreign carriers operating out of India, has also raised concerns over berthing delays and productivity reductions at the port.

“The port remains congested with berthing delays of about 40 hours,” CSLA said.

The group further said, “Post cyclone, the move count had dropped from about 27-28 to 21, which has now improved somewhat to about 25 moves per hour.”

CSLA added, “As far as port connectivity is concerned, about 80 trains are in the pipeline with the average number of trains being handled daily having dropped from 26-27 to 21.”

It went on to point out, “Some vessels are therefore bypassing Mundra and discharging cargo at neighbouring ports for connection on the following vessels. Vessel scheduling is thus getting to be a challenge due to the situation at Mundra, which one hopes will improve sooner rather than later.”

While the port authority is making all efforts to bring operations back on track, sources expect the berth congestion and cargo delays to persist for some more days due to substantial backlogs.

Source: Container News

The Adani Group’s flagship Mundra Port has been able to oust long-time market leader Nhava Sheva/JNPT as India’s top container handler.

But a close look at port data indicates that transshipment handling remains a major contributor to Mundra’s stronger growth. In July, transshipment volumes handled by Adani’s four terminals in Mundra stood at 167,363 TEU, making up 35% of the total 466,237 TEU shipped in/out of them, according to exclusive data obtained by Container News.

Between April and July, transshipment movement hit 574,900 TEU, out of 1.84 million TEU handled by the four terminals.

By contrast, the five container terminals at Nhava Sheva/JNPT together saw just 38,772 TEU of transshipment loads in the same four-month period.

The private conglomerate (APSEZ) has ongoing strategic partnerships with two of the world’s largest container carriers, Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC) and CMA CGM, for terminal operations at Mundra – known as Adani International Container Terminal (AICTPL) and Adani CMA Mundra Terminal (ACMTPL), respectively — and such large-scale transshipment gains are rooted in increasing hub activity by these carriers there.

The harbour also includes a terminal operated by DP World, named Mundra International Container Terminal (MICT).

“Mundra continues to be the largest container handling port with 1.65 million TEUs versus 1.48 million TEUs managed by JNPT during the quarter,” APSEZ noted, announcing the April-June quarter performance results.

“Q1 FY23 has been the strongest quarter in APSEZ’s history, with a record cargo volume and highest ever quarterly EBITDA. This is an 11% jump on a robust performance in the corresponding quarter last year that witnessed the post-Covid demand surge,” said Adani Group CEO Karan Adani. “The company continued this strong performance in July and recorded 100 MMT of cargo through-put in the initial 99 days of FY23, a feat never achieved before.”

Adani went on to add, “Our strategy of connecting port gate to customer gate through an integrated utility model is starting to yield results. APSEZ remains committed to its philosophy of ensuring sustainable growth in partnership with our key stakeholders.”

Mundra’s consolidated container traffic for the fiscal year 2021-22, which ended on 31 March, soared 15% year-over-year to 6.52 million TEUs.

As regional competition heats up, Nhava Sheva/JNPT is fighting hard to retain its market share and it remains to be seen how the recent privatisation of under-utilised port-owned cargo berths, awarded to a joint venture consortium of CMA CGM and Mumbai-based JM Baxi Group, will play out on that front.

Source: Container News