Singapore’s PSA International Pte Ltd will waive all storage charges at its terminals located at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), Chennai Port Trust and V O Chidambaranar Port Trust (VOCPT) from March 22 to May 3, the global port operator said in a public notice to the trade on Tuesday.
The move follows a Shipping Ministry directive to all the state-owned major ports and private cargo terminal operators therein to waive storage charges fully for the lockdown period.
Similar trade notices have been issued by Dubai’s D P World Pvt Ltd, waiving storage charges on all containers at its terminals at Chennai Port Trust and Cochin Port Trust.
Dakshin Bharat Gateway Terminal Private Limited (DBGT) has also waived storage charges at its terminal in V O Chidambaranar Port Trust (VOCPT).
Since March 22, PSA has extended a series of waivers across its three terminals to support the trade.
In an April 13 trade notice, PSA said it will offer a 50 per cent discount in storage charges on all import containers at its three terminals from April 16 to April 30.
“In addition to our earlier waivers of import storage, extensions of free time, waiver of change of mode charges and waivers of rail terminal handling charges for empty containers, we have been informed by the Ministry of Shipping to waive all storage charges from 22 March 2020 to 3 May 2020 at PSA Chennai, PSA Mumbai and PSA Sical,” the operator said in the notice.
The storage charges already collected during this period will be refunded as a credit note.
Though space utilisation at these terminals remains within manageable limits and there have been no berthing or departure delays during this period, the situation can change rapidly given the uncertainty, PSA said.
“To safeguard operations and service levels and to avoid potential congestion, we may take pre-emptive action including but not limited to en-bloc evacuation of containers with Customs approval,” PSA said while seeking “fullest cooperation from the trade to evacuate containers as soon as possible”.