Empty-Container Operator Strike Chokes Cargo Flow at Mundra, India's Leading Container Gateway

South Asia Ocean Freight News Report

What Happened

India’s Mudra port is currently facing a strike by empty-container yard operators, disrupting the container movements, with around 5,000 containers a day reportedly being held up as a dispute over the handling of the empty boxes escalates. The Mundra Empty Container Yards & Allied Services Provider Association (MECYASA) is protesting a new directive from Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) requiring shipping lines to nominate empty containers only to designated yards within the Mundra Port Special Economic Zone from September 1, effectively banning the off-dock depots operators have used for years. Depot owners took to the streets over the weekend to press Adani to rescind the change. Major carriers including Hapag-Lloyd, MSC, CMA CGM and Ocean Network Express have all issued customer advisories warning of disrupted empty-container availability and movement, though Container Freight Station stuffing and gate-in operations remain unaffected for now.

Why It Happened

APSEZ says the policy is meant to strengthen security and reduce road congestion around the port and improve truck turnaround times by consolidating empty-container handling within the port boundary. Depot operators and industry bodies reject that framing, calling the move "abrupt and arbitrary." The Container Freight Stations Association of India argued that empty depots are "an essential and specialised part of the shipping and export/import logistics chain," and that shipping lines not the terminal operator should retain the right to nominate depots based on their own operational and commercial needs, as it went further on, warning that forcing lines to use only one operator's ecosystem could breach existing contractual obligations and undermine fair market competition.

What It Means

Mundra and JNPA together handle the majority of India's containerised trade, so disruption here carry an outsized weight for exporters and carriers nationally with the industry sources warning that the standoff could extend beyond empty-box handling to laden export/import container movement too, since over-the-road trucking is central to how Indian ports function and Mundra's own trailer operators have now threatened to stop all container pickup entirely. The Mundra Customs Brokers Association has already pushed back on carriers, asking that EXIM trade not be made to absorb any additional costs from a dispute it did not cause, and calling for shipping lines to offer alternative nominated locations and waive related charges in the interim.

Short-Term Outlook

With trailer operators' strike threat still pending confirmation with no sign yet of APSEZ backing down we can expect near-term disruption to empty-container availability to continue into the first week of September, directly affecting exporters relying on factory-stuffing workflows. Watch for whether APSEZ opens a dialogue with MECYASA and the broader trade bodies calling for a status-quo rollback, since a prolonged standoff pertains risks of bleeding into laden cargo movement and could show up as delays or added costs on India's West Coast export volumes in the weeks ahead.