India’s sea ports surpass USA, Germany & UAE ports in speed of handling ship containers

India’s sea ports have performed better than those of the USA, Germany and the UAE in the efficiency with which they have handled containers on ships.

aA per World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index (I-PI) Report — 2023, Average Container dwell time for India is 3 days only as compared to 4 days for countries like UAE and South Africa, 7 days for USA and 10 days for Germany.

This means that Indian ports unloaded and loaded containers on board ships more quickly than the ports of the other countries.

Container dwell time is the amount of time that a container spends at a particular location. For example, if a container arrives at a port and is then unloaded and stored at a nearby warehouse, the container’s dwell time would be the amount of time that it spends at the warehouse.

“Very low dwell time at Indian Sea Ports is an outcome of reforms undertaken in the shipping sector by the Narendra Modi government to enhance port productivity and improve visibility of the supply chain through digitalization,” according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Ports and Shipping.

Focus on improving connectivity to the hinterland through coordinated planning and execution under the PM Gati-Shakti National Master Plan and thrust on public private partnerships in the maritime sector has propelled India to move up to 22^nd Rank in the Global Ranking in International Shipments category vis-à-vis the Overall 38^th Rank as per country’s Logistics Performance Index score, the statement added.

Indian Ports have registered quantum improvement in “Turn Around Time”.

The World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index (I-PI) Report-2023, puts Indian Ports “Turn Around Time” as 0.9 days which is better than USA (1.5 days), Australia (1.7 days), Belgium (1.3 days), Canada (2.0 days), Germany (1.3 days), UAE (1.1 days), Singapore (1.0 days), Russian Federation (1.8 days), Malaysia (1.0 days), Ireland (1.2 days), Indonesia (1.1 days), New Zealand (1.1 days) and South Africa (2.8 days).

The turnaround time is the time ships spend waiting in port for loading or unloading cargo and is a major factor for judging port performance.