The Chennai International Terminals Pvt Ltd (CITPL), a subsidiary of Singapore’s PSA International, that operates a container terminal inside the Chennai port is choking. Over 12,000 boxes - both export and import - are on the ground at the terminal waiting to be evacuated. Trade sources say the problem was due to lack of manpower and infrastructure, but the terminal operators blamed the Red Sea crisis and bunching of container ships.

A long queue of container trailers is seen both inside and outside the terminal. There is an abnormal delay in the evacuation of containers at CITPL due to bunching of vessels and poor infrastructure, said multiple sources.

It takes a minimum of 6-8 hours at the gate for issuing Equipment Interchange Receipt - a document with details like container number and vessel code required while transferring a cargo container from one vessel to another or to/from a shipping terminal - or DRF as compared to 20 minutes on a normal day.

There is no adequate infrastructure at the terminal for the multiple operation of both vessel discharge and delivery/ unloading of import/export containers. It has been severely impacted since the last two weeks with a long queue of vehicles at port for unloading export containers and delivery of import containers from the terminal. The terminal is not equipped for handling more containers when there is bunching of vessel berthing and operations, the Chennai Custom House Agents Association said.

According to RN Shekar, President, Chennai Custom Brokers Association, for the past three months this situation was allowed to deteriorate with no positive action from CITPL. Evacuation of boxes from the container to Container Freight Stations Evacuation has increased to 5 to 8 days as against the normal two days, he said.

Access to cargo for the importers has become uncertain. The situation has been aggravated by increased demurrage and detention passed on to trade by CITPL, he said.

S Sathyanaraayanan, Chairman, Chennai Chapter of National Association of Container Freight Stations, said the turnaround time of trailers has significantly increased due to the delay at the terminal. Vehicles are parked idle either inside or outside the port for hours, he added.

CITPL started operations in 2009 and achieved the 5 millionth twenty foot equivalent unit (TEU) benchmark in September 2017. DP World is the other terminal operator at the port.

CITPL in a statement to the trade said that since the beginning of 2024 the terminal was faced with off-schedule vessel arrivals due to the Red Sea crisis that has significantly disrupted the global shipping and trade. This has arisen from a confluence of factors, upstream and downstream ports congestion, port omission by shipping lines to recover their schedule which gave rise to substantial changes to the vessel arrival pattern, size, and call.

In recent months, the impact had resulted in high concentrations of vessels arriving at certain days of the week that caused significant increase in the wait time impacting the turnaround time leading to congestion and tailbacks of trucks entering PSA Chennai as well as Terminal’s performance as a whole.

“We are increasing the ground equipment, deferring planned maintenance of RTG, and getting more experienced operators. In addition to these, we are also in direct communications with shipping lines to shift their arrival window towards staggered days / time to help spread the load better,” the terminal said in a communication to the trade.

However, J Krishnan of Natesa Iyer LLP said that the blame cannot be on Red Sea, but, factors like lack of manpower, process, infrastructure and managerial expertise, are aggravating the situation at PSA Chennai. The issue is complex. When it comes to augmenting the infrastructure, the gestation is long, he added.

Meanwhile, sources said that the Chennai Port Authority has urged all Container Freight Stations to deploy maximum trailers for the evacuation to reduce the inventory at CITPL.

Three container vessels are waiting at outer anchorage for berthing at the terminal. However, CITPL has stopped berthing of the vessels until the inventory are under control.

ChPT also requested the Customs and CISF to speed up the movement at Zero gate

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