IN Brief:
- Terminal handling charges at Mundra MICT are set to rise from 15 May.
- Dry, reefer, and dangerous goods containers face higher load and discharge charges.
- The increases add to India’s port-cost pressure as congestion and routing disruption strain inland flows.
DP World Mundra International Container Terminal is introducing higher terminal handling charges from 15 May, increasing the cost of moving containers through one of India’s most important western gateways.
The revised tariff applies across dry, refrigerated, and dangerous goods containers handled at Mundra MICT. Standard dry 20ft containers will move from ₹13,700 to ₹15,500, while dry 40ft and high-cube containers will move from ₹20,750 to ₹23,450. Dangerous goods containers face sharper increases, with 20ft units moving from ₹29,250 to ₹36,500 and 40ft units rising from ₹40,750 to ₹51,600.
Refrigerated cargo will also become more expensive to handle. The terminal handling charge for 40ft reefer containers is moving from ₹43,000 to ₹56,550, adding cost for temperature-controlled exporters and importers already managing equipment availability, power requirements, documentation, and inland haulage.
Terminal handling charges are normally passed through by carriers, but they sit directly inside the landed-cost calculation for cargo owners. The latest increase adds another variable to freight budgets at a point when Indian shippers are balancing port congestion, inland transport availability, container repositioning, and schedule reliability.
The effect will be sharper for lower-margin cargoes and exporters working under fixed-price contracts. Higher-value cargo may absorb the rise within broader transport budgets, although even then the additional charge can alter routing decisions, carrier selection, and shipment timing when multiple gateways are available.
India’s western port system has been handling sustained operational pressure. IN Supply recently reported that trailer shortages were slowing container evacuation at JNPA, despite terminals remaining open and daily throughput holding up. When inland transport becomes the weak point, port-side charges can become part of a wider cost stack rather than a narrow terminal issue.
Policy flexibility has also become part of the operating picture. India’s extension of cabotage relief as transhipment volumes rise showed the pressure to improve coastal movement and feeder options while domestic capacity develops. Those changes sit alongside investment in terminals, roads, rail corridors, and logistics parks, but cargo owners still face lane-level disruption whenever capacity does not connect cleanly across the chain.
Cost pressure is also being rebuilt through smaller, localised charges rather than only headline freight rates. IN Supply has covered Hapag-Lloyd’s European feeder surcharge, another example of carriers and operators adjusting price structures around specific network costs. For procurement teams, the result is a more fragmented freight bill, where base rates explain only part of the final invoice.
The Mundra increase reinforces the need for lane-level cost control. Ocean freight, terminal handling, inland haulage, detention, demurrage, feeder charges, equipment imbalance fees, and documentation costs all have to be modelled together. Freight forwarders will also face more pressure to explain invoice changes clearly when spot rates and total landed costs move in different directions.
India’s port modernisation programme is designed to lift capacity, but the transition will continue to expose gaps between infrastructure plans and day-to-day execution. As Mundra, JNPA, and other gateways handle larger volumes, terminal pricing, inland transport capacity, and regulatory flexibility will remain closely linked. The latest Mundra increase is a tariff adjustment on paper; in practice, it will feed directly into routing decisions, shipment budgets, and contract negotiations.