Mumbai's JN Port experienced growing congestion

Mumbai's Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, India's biggest container facility, is experiencing growing congestion partly blamed on a go-slow by dockers at the Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal (NSICT), poor rail services combined with the advance of the usually heavy monsoon shipping season, the Shipping Gazette reports.


The Western India Shippers Association (WISA) told London's International Freighting Weekly that containers were piling up, export gates were functioning badly and two carriers were refusing export boxes until mid-April at the earliest.


Marseilles-based CMA CGM confirmed that container movements were "limited", while the situation at the "very congested" terminal had worsened because of a strong growth of exports in March, said the IFW report.


DP World said congestion was caused more by the pressure of increased volumes on the storage yard at NSICT than the dockers dispute. "Terminals are finding managing inventory challenging, because of the pressure of volumes on the yard, especially with the oncoming monsoon season. Labour issues were resolved and operations are back to normal," said a spokeswoman.


WISA also blamed rail services provided by Concor after 2,000 containers were diverted to wrong yards because of the lack of space at NSICT. "Concor has advised shipping agents that the average port detention of trains had moved to 11-12 hours instead of the normal five to six," the spokesman said.


"Further, around 15 to 20 trains, each carrying around 900 export boxes, have been detained before they reached the JN Port. This means the boxes missed their vessel connections, with consequent problems of cancellation of export orders and compensation claims for delayed deliveries, and so on," said the WISA spokesman.
(Source:http://www.transportweekly.com)