APSEZ Launches Dedicated Empty Container Yard at Mundra Amid Ongoing Depot Operator Strike

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) has announced the launch of a dedicated Empty Container Yard (ECY) at Mundra Port, integrated with warehousing, as part of its Ambition 2031 roadmap. The announcement comes even as external empty-container depot operators and transporters serving Mundra remain on strike over a related APSEZ policy change.

What has APSEZ announced?

APSEZ said the new ECY is designed to offer end-to-end services across the empty container lifecycle, including storage, maintenance, inspection, and movement to exporters and Container Freight Stations (CFSs). The company, which handles about 35 percent of India’s container trade through Mundra alone, said the facility is intended to deliver faster turnaround times, cut unnecessary container movements, and optimise logistics costs.

APSEZ Whole-time Director and CEO Ashwani Gupta said ECY operations run by APSEZ and its partners would improve efficiency across the container ecosystem, and that strengthening trade-enabling infrastructure supports the government’s Viksit Bharat vision and its push for technology-enabled logistics. The company said the facility is expected to improve coordination among Customs authorities, shipping lines, terminal operators, and transporters.

The launch is part of APSEZ’s broader Ambition 2031 plan, under which the company intends to add more than 6 million TEUs of container handling capacity over the next five years. APSEZ currently operates 16 ports and terminals across India with a combined capacity of 653 million tonnes per annum, about 27 percent of the country’s total port volumes.

Why is this launch significant right now?

The new ECY effectively formalises a policy APSEZ put into effect from September 1, requiring shipping lines to nominate empty containers only to designated yards within the Mundra Port SEZ, and freezing empty-yard codes for facilities located outside the port and SEZ boundary. APSEZ has said the change is intended to curb misuse of empty-depot codes, improve security, ease road congestion, and speed up vehicle turnaround.

That policy triggered a sharp reaction from the Mundra Empty Container Yards & Allied Services Provider Association (MECYASA), whose members suspended operations from August 28 in protest, followed by the Kandla Mundra Container Transport Welfare Association, whose roughly 1,500 transporters halted container pickups from September 1. Industry estimates cited by the Mundra Customs Brokers’ Association put the resulting disruption at around 5,000 containers a day, with CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd both warning customers that empty-container releases for factory stuffing and empty gate-ins were affected at external yards, though CFS stuffing and gate-in operations have continued. The Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Associations in India has asked the Directorate General of Shipping to intervene, citing stranded vehicles, missed vessel cut-offs and shipment rollovers.

External depot operators argue the policy threatens the viability of facilities in which they have invested in land, equipment, container repair infrastructure and labour. APSEZ has maintained that consolidating empty-container operations within the port SEZ, including through facilities such as the newly launched ECY, will benefit the broader logistics chain.