APM Terminals Mumbai to offer continuous ‘gate-in’ service for exports to ease doing business

Aug 17, 2016: APM Terminals Mumbai, India’s busiest container terminal, becomes the first to offer continuous ‘gate-in’ service to exporters.

Through the continuous gate-in facility offered by APM Terminals, Mumbai exporters and their transporters have the advantage of delivering containers at the terminal for the next shipping cycle, even with an existing vessel docked.

After an initial successful pilot testing programme, the service was fully implemented in March 2016, and has since benefited 2,100 export container shipments, speeding container handling by up to 24 hours, and producing savings of over Rs. 2000 per container.

The programme has also reduced congestion significantly, as trucks no longer have to wait to drop off containers at the terminal.

As per the earlier process, gate-in services for the next shipping cycle were opened only after 24-36 hours; the time between the cargo cut-off until vessel departure. The export gate activity for the next shipping cycle was resumed only after the sailing of the prior vessel.

“Considering 80 percent of the container cargo is still delivered by road, and of that, 70 percent comes from interior points, delays in meeting gate-in deadlines occur regularly; and as a result, trucks would either be parked outside for hours or would drop-off cargo at the buffer yard, both resulting in additional indirect costs for trade,” observed Ravi Gaitonde, COO, APM Terminals Mumbai.

Apart from the continuous Gate-in programme, Direct Port Delivery service within six hours of vessel discharge is available for import customers, the fastest in the country.

APM Terminals Mumbai also offers paperless transactions for both exports and imports through E-Form 13, and online customs endorsements.

Other initiatives include container tracking through RFID, digitalized container survey process, dedicated parking for factory stuffed units, inter terminal transfers and improved gate turn procedures.

APM Terminals Mumbai was India’s busiest container terminal in 2015, handling 1.9 million TEUs, representing 43 percent of Mumbai’s container port traffic.