Following APL’s lead, Hapag-Lloyd plans to enforce a port congestion surcharge at India’s Port of Jawaharlal Nehru (Nhava Sheva) as the equipment modernization program at the port continues to cause delays and traffic.
Hapag-Lloyd said that from August 15, a surcharge of $80 will be imposed on each 20-foot equivalent unit (TEU) on all cargo from Asia passing through Nhava Sheva. Earlier, APL announced a $60 per TEU surcharge that was scheduled to be imposed starting August 7.
Nhava Sheva, India’s most dominant container port, has been struggling against massive bottlenecks caused by the installation of new cranes at the port-run terminal. The operational complications have forced ocean carriers to skip calls and redirect traffic to other ports.
Port officials have labeled the surcharge announcements as unnecessary and rejected the claim by the Western India Shippers’ Association (WISA) that the congestion was caused by poor planning on the part of the port authority. They insisted the equipment upgrading was a planned move that was cascaded to all stakeholders well in advance.
To add to the crisis, brewing labor issues at the Gateway Terminals India, which is managed by APM Terminals, are seen to add to the congestion at Port of Jawaharlal Nehru.
Reports say an informal slowdown by dockworkers at Gateway Terminals, Nehru’s largest container facility has been taking place since August 2 over an unspecified labor concern.
