STRIKES, increasing cargo volumes and power outages have slowed Mumbai's Nhava Sheva terminals box handling capability, leaving carriers to mull congestion surcharges, reports London's Containerisation International.

Chronic congestion through Mumbai is driving business to state of Gujarat to the north as several ocean carriers divert Delhi cargo to Pipavav and Mundra, both of which have posted double-digit volume gains last year.

The Nhava Sheva terminal complex, which handles two thirds of India maritime container traffic, lacks state of the art box-handling facilities while India's growing prosperity and rising export and import volumes outpace its main box port's ability to cope.

While no one carrier has levied a surcharge, Hapag-Lloyd has issued a warning, suggesting that carriers were "working with the port authority and terminal operators to come up with solutions to minimise the delays".

Said the Hapag-Lloyd statement: "As part of the contingency plans to clear the congestion terminal operators are imposing container loading restrictions on some vessels from Nhava Sheva. This will unfortunately impact the ability to accommodate all bookings requests for our services from Nhava Sheva."