Container Shipping to and from India

India is largely an export-based country. It’s among the largest exporters in the world and has a significant share of imports as well. India is strategically located to the world’s shipping routes with a coastline of approximately 7,500km. Maritime transport handles around 70% of India’s trading in value terms.

Twill offers first-class ocean and inland transportation from export markets such as India. Check our platform now to find schedules and rates instantly and ship your goods worldwide.

In India, Twill provides Inland Transportation services, including trucking and rail services. These services enable transportation from the factory of your goods to the loading port or from the discharge port to the cargo discharge point.

As we offer a digital end to end logistics service, you can easily get the trucking price on our platform. Sign up now and search for routes and prices to transport containers from port to door or door to port in India.

The transit time for shipping containers to or from India depends on the shipping routes and other factors – including the vessel schedule, whether containers need to be connected to other vessels on their journey and how many calling ports there are on the route.

Twill, supercharged by Maersk, offers market-leading transit times for India from all its key markets – like the United States, Germany, the UK or Africa – and many more destinations.

Here are a few transit times for popular routes to and from India on average:

• The transit time from Mundra to Rotterdam (NL) can take up to approximately 33 days.

• The transit time from Pipavav to Hamburg can take up to approximately 45 days.

• The transit time from Jawaharlal Nehru to London Gateway can take up to approximately 57 days.

Our strong transit times ensure you keep your lead times to a minimum, while being able to keep cargo moving at a good pace.

Insurance is not essential to ship from or to India, but it is recommended – and you should review whether this is something you need based on the Incoterms you have agreed with your supplier.

Container insurances differ from country to country and depend on the goods you are shipping. Container damages can happen at any point in transit, and they might bring irreversible delays to your cargo’s journey. In such situations, the ideal solution is to make sure that all container damage disputes are resolved by specialists, so you don’t need to worry about them.

If you’re shipping your cargo across the sea, you want to know that you won’t lose money if your freight is damaged or lost. This is why Twill offers Value Protect, giving you peace of mind that your cargo is protected during the transportation with us.

Customs clearance procedures are an important step in your cargo’s journey, and you will need to follow them when exporting and importing gods from or into India. Depending on if you are exporting or importing there are different processes to be followed.

Export customs clearance process in India:

Standard full export customs clearance process.

• Document Verification (Invoice, Packing List, Bill of Lading, etc.)

• Preparing the Checklist for the Bill of Entry

• Examination of Goods

• Clearance of the cargo

• Duty advise: The shipping agents are to submit shipping wise Export General Manifest to the Customs Department, both electronically and manually, within seven days from the date of sailing of the vessel

• Out of Charge clearance: Signifies that the custom process is complete and the role of customs ends at this stage

Import customs clearance process in India:

Standard full customs declaration, paying Duty and import GST upon arrival in the country in
scope to gain release of the cargo for onward delivery.

• Preparing the Check List: The Check List is a list of documents such as Invoice, Packing List, BL etc.

• Filing at ICE Gate: ICE Gate stands for Indian Customs Electronic Gateway. It is the national portal of Indian Customs that provides e-filing services to Cargo carriers.

• Generating the Shipping Bill Number

• Customs Assessment

• Attaining LEO: LEO is the "Let Export Order", the last step in the list of compliance requirements required to re-export goods out of India.

• VGM Verification (additional charges apply)

Our customs clearance experts help shippers both new and experienced understand the duties they have to pay, or the exemptions they may be entitled to, helping make the import and export process smooth and easy. Find out more about our Customs Clearance services here.

In Transit Clearance (Nepal) Exclusions, for export clearance, there are no major restrictions other than second hand goods. Second hand goods are items that have been owned and used before. There are several item-wise restrictions where second hand goods clearance is concerned.

On import customs clearance, commodities such as perishables, fruits, radioactive materials, scrap and waste-paper are restricted. You should seek assisstance from local authorities before importing any of these items as clearance is restricted for them.

There are 7 main ports in India:

1. Jawaharlal Nehru (Nhava Sheva)

2. Mundra

3. Kandla

4. Ennore

5. Kolkata

6. Tuticorin

7. Cochin

All of these ports are covered within the Twill platform – with a view of pricing and cost breakdown available prior to booking. So, you can move your cargo from and to India across the world. Take a look for yourself and simply sign up now.