IN Brief:
- JNPA says all five container terminals are operating normally despite import evacuation delays.
- The port is handling around 22,000 TEUs daily, with yard occupancy at roughly 67%.
- Trailer and driver shortages outside the port are constraining container clearance through CFS and customs broker channels.
Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority has moved to counter congestion concerns at India’s largest container port, saying terminal operations remain normal while import evacuation is being slowed by trailer and driver shortages outside the port.
All five container terminals are continuing to operate, with the port handling an average of 10 to 12 vessels a day and processing around 22,000 TEUs of containerised cargo daily. Gate flows are also continuing, with around 20,000 TEUs moving by road and approximately 2,000 TEUs by rail each day.
The current pressure is concentrated around inland evacuation rather than quay or terminal productivity. Import containers can only move when trailers are positioned by Container Freight Stations and customs brokers. Fewer available drivers and trailers have reduced the number of vehicles arriving for loading, even as terminal operators add manpower to maintain container handling speed.
JNPA’s total container storage capacity stands at 176,000 TEUs. As of 7 May, occupancy was 118,000 TEUs, or around 67% of total capacity. Approximately 26,000 TEUs of that volume was transshipment cargo, which the port has separated from the import clearance issue. The port has also indicated that there is no backlog of trailers waiting inside terminals for loading.
Several measures are being used to ease the pressure. These include rail-based evacuation to nearby CFS facilities, coordination with customs authorities to accelerate clearance, and support for moving drivers from states including West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh through dedicated train services. The focus is on increasing the supply of road transport resources into the evacuation chain, rather than treating the issue as a port-side capacity failure.
The situation exposes a persistent weakness in high-volume container logistics. Ports can invest in berths, cranes, terminal systems, and gate processes, but the effective capacity of the gateway still depends on inland equipment, drivers, CFS performance, clearance speed, and cargo owner readiness. When one part of that chain tightens, the effect appears quickly in yard density and dwell time, even where terminal equipment is still running normally.
India’s port system is handling larger volumes, with national throughput growth recently covered in India’s major ports pass 915Mt cargo milestone. That growth is being matched by new corridor and inland infrastructure planning, including the industrial and logistics development outlined in Ganga Expressway becomes logistics corridor.
Port performance cannot be measured by berth productivity alone. Container gateways operate as systems, and the inland side is often where resilience is tested. Trailer shortages, driver availability, rail slotting, CFS capacity, customs processes, and documentation readiness all determine whether cargo keeps moving once it leaves the ship.
For shippers, the immediate operational risk is delayed import clearance and uncertain onward delivery. For CFSs, transporters, and brokers, the pressure is more direct: they need enough equipment and driver capacity to prevent yard occupancy from rising into a genuine congestion problem. JNPA’s terminals may be functioning, but the episode shows how quickly growth in maritime throughput can expose shortages in the road and inland logistics base supporting it.
