DP World dramatically slashed its container dwell times at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in December, edging out rivals and helping shippers to save on storage charges at India’s busiest public gateway.
New port productivity statistics collected by JOC.com, part of IHS Markit, show the Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal, or NSICT, overall average dwell time last month was down to 2.34 days from 2.84 days as a result of gate automation and other process innovations.
DP World’s second facility in the harbor — Nhava Sheva (India) Gateway Terminal — also was able to sharply lower its average dwell time in December to 2.67 days from 4.52 days in November, statistics show.
By contrast, APM Terminals-operated Gateway Terminals India, NSICT’s closest rival, reported an average dwell time of 2.37 days, compared with 2.31 days the previous month, while the December dwell time at port-owned Jawaharlal Nehru Container Terminal remained flat month-on-month, at 2.59 days.
Dwell times essentially mean the time it takes exports inside terminal gates to be loaded onto a ship and imports onto a truck or train.
That productivity edge for DP World comes as the Dubai-headquartered group is looking to consolidate its operations in the country with a further $1 billion investment program.
“DP World has invested in the development of five international gateway ports in India and we believe making ports more productive across the country rather than building more green-field sites is the way forward,” the company told JOC.com. “We remain committed to our operations in the country, which form an important part of our global network.”
Those dwell time improvements also could be a result of ongoing government efforts to speed up overall cargo flows at JNPT, which accounts for the majority of India’s containerized freight. With a task force to deal with dwell time issues in the works, better results could be expected in the coming months.
DP World Nhava Sheva has made significant strides towards operational efficiency over the past year, the most notable of which was the April 1 berthing at NSIGT of the MSC Cristina, with a capacity of more than 13,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units.
A recent JOC.com analysis also showed dwell time levels at other dominant container ports in the country have been shortened thanks to the government’s push to digitize operations and get shippers to use direct port delivery services. Those figures in the first eight fiscal months through the end of November were as follows: Chennai Port at 2.57 days, from 3.05 days in the same period of 2015; V.O. Chidambaranar (Tuticorin) at 1.99 days, from 2.13 days; and Cochin Port at 5.49 days, from 5.88 days.
Source: JOC (LF)
Source: JOC