News / With Phase 2 launch at JNPA, BMCT is now India's biggest box facility

PSA International last week officially kicked off its phase 2 terminal operations at India’s Nhava Sheva port (JNPA), making Bharat Mumbai Container Terminals (BMCT), with its 2,000 metres of berth, the largest box handling facility in the country.

The launch saw BMCT double capacity, to 4.8m teu annually, accounting for more than half of JNPA’s overall capacity. The government-controlled landlord port has six private terminal concessionaires in all, including PSA, which began phase 1 BMCT operations in early 2018.

The Singapore-based group is said to have invested some $1.3bn in Nhava Sheva in two stages, said to be the largest foreign direct investment flow into the Indian maritime sector.

“PSA Mumbai’s Phase 2 expansion brings together capacity, connectivity and sustainability, a catalyst for advancing India’s trade ambitions,” said group CEO Ong Kim Pong.

As India’s port capacity solidifies, there are already signs of a heightened battle for market share among terminals, with carriers redrawing their berthing window relationships.

At the centre of terminal operations in this hyper-competitive environment is the inland logistics ability to handle growing Asian import volumes, mostly destined for northern hinterland locations.

Typically, Indian ports handle more containerised imports than exports, partly because container lines are also required to reposition empty boxes at a significant scale to fix the chronic equipment scarcity in India.

BMCT can compete better with other terminals on container dwell times, as it is the only facility equipped with large rail yards linked to the western freight corridor (DFC), a speedy connector targeted to go live out of Nhava Sheva at the end of the year.

“When the western DFC is fully connected to JNPA, PSA Mumbai’s DFC-ready infrastructure will enable importers and exporters to experience a boost in multimodal logistics efficiency,” said PSA.

BMCT leads JNPA’s rebounding container throughput march, its April-August volumes surging 27% year on year. to 1.1m teu, the highest regional growth, according to available data.

With significant spare capacity now at its command, sources believe JNPA is now in a position to claw back some of the shipper support which moved away to private minor port rivals, especially Mundra, in the past years. BMCT hosts the maximum number of intra-Asia services operating out of JNPA.

According to industry sources, hinterland shippers generally tend to partner with carriers that are able to deliver goods with reliable and faster inland haulage offerings, as lengthy on-dock container stays attract additional port charges and penalties, in addition to other associated business impacts.

While terminal efficiency remains a key differentiator in container supply chains, the increasing presence of bigger carriers, mainly MSC, Maersk and CMA CGM, in owning terminal assets is expected to put some growth pressure on niche port terminal giants, sources believe.

To cite one example, CMA CGM has just switched its Epic service (India/North Europe) calls from BMCT to Nhava Sheva Freeport Terminal (NSFT), a joint-venture operation between CMA Terminals and Mumbai-based JM Baxi Group, seeking broader synergies in the supply chain.

Maersk holds most of its weekly vessel calls out of JNPA at APM Terminals’ Gateway Terminals India), while MSC runs the largest box facility at Mundra, in partnership with Adani Ports.