News / Delays at Mauritius transhipment hub spark box line congestion surcharges

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Port Louis, Mauritius’ transhipment hub, is facing excessive cargo delays due to infrastructure issues, threatening trade volume gains seen in recent years.

To recoup anticipated additional costs due to the logjam, major container lines have begun imposing congestion surcharges for containers flowing into Port Louis.

MSC will start charging $250 per teu on Indian bookings to Port Louis from 1 December for both dry and reefer cargo said the carrier.

“Due to the congestion in Port Louis, Mauritius, generating difficult conditions to operate, MSC will apply a congestion surcharge,” the carrier told customers.

The Geneva-based liner has two weekly sailings to Mauritius out of west India, the Indus Express and Indian Ocean Relay Service 3, according to port traffic information.

CMA CGM has instituted similar surcharges, adding $200 per teu to ocean freight for Port Louis, starting 15 December, telling its customers in India the surcharge was necessary to “maintain service quality”.

Its Swahili Express (SWAX2) service calls Nhava Sheva, Mundra and Port Louis.

Other carriers offering regular services out of Port Louis are expected to follow suit, industry sources told The Loadstar. 

India is one of Mauritius’s top trading partners, with bilateral trade at some $555m in fiscal year 2022-23, sequentially expanding from some $207m in 2005-06, according to available data.

Additionally, India and Mauritius inked a comprehensive economic co-operation and partnership agreement (CECPA) in 2021 to deepen bilateral trade and investment relations.

Indian export trade to Mauritius is primarily led by textiles, pharmaceuticals, quartz slabs, spices and seafood, data shows. Broadly, the free-trade access framework covered some 310 export items out of India, with Mauritius benefiting for 615 products, reciprocally.

For New Delhi, it marked its first trade deal with an African nation. India’s ministry of commerce said at the time: “The India-Mauritius CECPA provides for an institutional mechanism to encourage and improve trade between the two countries.”

And South Africa relies heavily on Port Louis for transhipment movements. Maersk’s Safari loop rotation includes a call, northbound, to provide direct connectivity for exports out of Cape Town destined for Asia.