Disruption at India's Nhava Sheva Port

The Nhava Sheva Port, officially Jawaharlal Nehru Port, is in the midst of a strike in a protest against hiring "outsiders" to positions reserved for villagers who lost their lands to development projects. The strike is occurring at one of Nhava Sheva three terminals, the Gateway Terminal. There, the strike has affected shipping lines, rail trade, and local container freight stations. It is estimated that the nation is losing at least 1 billion Indian Rupees every day for the past five days.

Gateway Terminals in Nhava Sheva and Chennai handle 45% of the containers transiting India, which handles 1.9 million TEUs of the 4.2 million TEUs that India handles annually. A port official reported, "because of the strike, the traffic is being diverted to JNPT's container terminal, which is operating at more than 120 percent capacity. This has resulted in massive congestion at the other 2 terminals impacting both inbound and outbound traffic.

Historically, work stoppages and strikes by port and trucking unions have caused disruption for months at a time. 2010 was the last time a serious port strike happened in India and many of the global ocean carriers dropped India ports for a period of 6 months.

We are monitoring the present situation and request your understanding in this disruption.