Middle East Crisis: Jawaharlal Nehu Port waives storage, reefer charges for stranded containers - Details

The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) has issued a trade notice announcing the waiver of storage/dwell time charges and reefer plug-in charges for West Asia-bound export containers stranded in the port due to geopolitical disturbances in the Gulf region.

The port's move came following the directives issued by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) on March 6, 2026, which established a "Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Major Ports to mitigate the impact of geo-political disturbances in the Middle East".

"In line with the MoPS&W directives, JNPA is committed to extending all possible assistance to the Export-Import (EXIM) community to tide over this crisis. JNPA have decided to offer a waiver on charges like ground rent and reefer plug-in charges to the stranded export containers," the notice said.

The port authority has instructed all the container terminal operators to give a 100 per cent waiver on ground rent charges up to 15 days till March 14 for those Middle East-bound export-laden containers that were lying inside the premises from February 28, or those that had gated in till March 8 morning, 7 AM only.

Furthermore, terminal operators shall waive 80 per cent of the reefer plug-in charges up to 15 days (from 0000 hours on 28.02.2026 till 2400 hours on 14.03.2026) to those stranded reefer containers loaded with perishable goods, which were lying inside from 28th February 2026 or those which had gated in till 0700 hours on 08.03.2026 only.

The following measures have already been taken by the Port and Terminal Operators to give relief to the EXIM community.

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In addition to this, JNPA, in association with its Terminal Operators, has also decided to implement the following measures to mitigate the burden on the exporters for their stranded cargo destined for Ports & Terminals in the Middle East region affected by recent geo-political disturbances as under-

1. All Terminal Operators shall give a 100 per cent waiver on ground rent/dwell time charges up to 15 days (from 0000 hours on 28.02.2026 up to 2400 hours on 14.03.2026) for containers which were lying inside the Terminals from 28th February 2026 or those which had gated in till 0700 hours on 08.03.2026.

2. All Terminal operators shall waive 80% of the reefer plugin charges up to 15 days (from 0000 hours on 28.02.2026 till 2400 hours on 14.03.2026) to those stranded reefer containers loaded with perishable goods, which were lying inside from 28th February 2026 or those which had gated in till 0700 hours on 08.03.2026 only.

3. The shipping lines, NVOCC, Freight Forwarders are directed to ensure that these benefits are passed on to the actual exporters.

JNPA is also providing additional storage area to the terminals for stacking such additional cargo and offering a facility to store stranded containers in the terminal's container yards till the cargo is shipped out.

JNPA and the terminals are also in constant consultation with customs authorities to facilitate storage of laden containers from other ports destined to the Middle East, as temporary transhipment cargo at JNPA terminals.

In a separate press release on Monday, JNPA highlighted that the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) has issued the SOP for all the major ports to mitigate the impact of geopolitical disturbance in the Middle East.

JNPort, has therefore, constituted a task force which included the Joint DGFT, Additional Commissioner of Customs, CGM (Traffic) JNPA, and the Deputy Director General of Shipping.

Girish Thomas, CGM (Traffic) at JNPA, has been appointed as the Single Point of Contact for all coordination and communications related to these trade disruptions.