Market growth and regional carrier competition are booming in India. What started as a trickle in Q3 2024 has since evolved into a steady stream of old and new carriers alike serving up new offerings in 2025. While cooling relations with Pakistan and the ensuing trade restrictions did bring about some scheduling complications for existing services, they did little to deter this growth.
India Trade Capacity Timeline
Ports in Pakistan have unfortunately been on the opposite end of this arrangement; subject to a a more pronounced decline in planned proforma events and an increase in lost capacity since trade restrictions were first introduced in May. Indian exports/imports remaining on-board are allowed to transit through Pakistani ports, but no on-board Pakistani cargo - or empty containers - are allowed to travel through India.
Pakistan Trade Capacity Timeline
Insights
- The average number of services calling Indian ports on a monthly basis has jumped from 137 in 2024 to 144 in 2025. This will peak at 146 in August and September - the highest number of offerings since Q2-Q3 2023.
- Pakistan’s service offerings have been declining since March 2025, falling from 38 in February, to 27 in June, and making a slight recovery up to 30 this month.
- There are a total of 24 services shared between Pakistan and India, with CMA CGM and COSCO present on nearly 30% of these strings.
- Monthly proforma capacity in India has risen 9% since August 2024, up to 5 million TEU this month. Average actual monthly capacity this year has risen by 6% against 2024.
- Monthly proforma capacity in Pakistan has declined by 27% since August 2024, down to 728K this month. Average actual monthly capacity in 2025 has declined by 17% against 2024.
- Indian ports lost a total of 183 calls to omissions or 6% of planned calls from May through July following restrictions, but are forecasted to see just 16 in August - the least monthly omissions since 2022.
- Pakistan lost 16% of planned port calls to omissions in May through July and is forecasted to see 8 omissions in August, signalling some relief.
Notable Services
While Indian ports are served heavily by feeders, intraregionals, and the Far East - Middle East trade, it has seen the most dramatic growth in Far East - Europe since November 2023 and the beginning of the Red Sea crisis. Average actual monthly capacity has exploded by a stunning 642% since the first half of 2023, from an average 33K TEU per month to 245K in 2025. While the number of unique services hasn’t grown drastically, this increase in capacity does well to highlight both larger vessel sizes and the increase of port calls per string to the Indian Subcontinent on the Far East - Europe trade. A recent addition includes the MLINE - MIREX which began its rotation with Nhava Sheva and Mundra in April. Premier Alliance’s MD3 service, hosting vessels of an average 19K TEU, also added Vizhinjam to the lineup in early May.
India Trade Capacity Timeline on Far East - Europe
Some Far East - Middle East services that have popped up in recent months include the COSCO - RMV, GEM - India Europe loop, AAK - TIP, CUL - CSX, and the SITC - FIE3. MSC’s longstanding transpacific Chinook service was recently restructured to become part of the pendulum Chinook - Clanga string, which will include calls to Nhava Sheva and the Persian Gulf. We’ve also seen the introduction of one new feeder each from Gemini, CMA CGM, Maersk, Regional Container Lines, Shreyas Shipping, and SeaLead Shipping since the start of the year. MSC has introduced two feeders and one new intraregional.
Despite the stark contrast to India’s success, Pakistan’s recent struggles should not be interpreted as an entirely grim outlook. Some carriers are still keen on offering new connections to Pakistani ports while simultaneously exploring competitive advantages in India. Newcomer Greta Shipping will be connecting Jebel Ali with Karachi starting next week with the sailing of HUI FA on August 15th on their Jebel Ali India Express service. Greta Shipping is also poised to join Hapag-Lloyd on the IG1 and KWF strings connecting Jebel Ali with India and Kuwait, respectively.
eeSea Signals
- All Services to Mundra
- All Services to Nhava Sheva
- Port Pair Options + Schedule Reliability Between Asia + India
- India Trade Capacity Index (TCI) + Schedule Reliability Timeline - Tableau Permission Required
- Monthly Service Details by Port, VSA, Trade, Capacity - Tableau Permission Required
- India Services Import/Export Sequences - Tableau Permission Required