Colombo Skipped, Nhava Sheva Queued: Transhipment Congestion and Where Indian Marine Cargo Cover Actually Stops

C.H. Robinson's Edge Report freight market update dated 1 October 2026 puts a number on the problem: global port congestion is absorbing about 12% of vessel capacity, a four-year high, with the heaviest effects in East Asia, North Europe and the Indian subcontinent.

The report names three South Asian pain points: Colombo, Nhava Sheva and Mundra. The Colombo mechanism matters most for Indian shippers outside the west coast gateways. When mainline services skip or bypass Colombo to restore their schedules, South Indian cargo that was routed through Colombo on a feeder can miss its planned connection. The report expects these conditions to persist at least until mid-to-late October.

It also flags that India-North America capacity remains constrained and that schedule reliability has fallen sharply, citing congestion, vessel bunching, typhoons, Middle East conditions and Panama Canal restrictions.

For an operations or risk team, the practical question is narrower than the headline. A container discharged at Colombo, or sitting in a queue outside Nhava Sheva, is still insured cargo. The questions are for how long, on what conditions, and against which losses. This post works through those mechanics. It deliberately covers different ground from our pieces on the Mundra cut-off and the marine delay exclusion and on [Vizhinjam's direct sailings and open cover wording](/global-cross-border-insurance/vizhinjam-exim-launch-marine-open-cover-transit-clause-india-2026).

Indian marine cargo policies are commonly written on the Institute Cargo Clauses (1/1/2009), and the (A), (B) and (C) forms share the same duration wording. Under Clause 8.1, cover attaches when the goods are first moved in the warehouse for immediate loading, continues during the ordinary course of transit, and ends on the earliest of completion of unloading at the final warehouse at destination, completion of unloading at any other place the insured elects to use for storage outside the ordinary course of transit, or the expiry of 60 days after completion of discharge overside at the final port of discharge.

Two features of that wording protect cargo stuck at Colombo.

1. The 60-day clock is tied to the final port of discharge. Discharge at an intermediate transhipment hub does not start it, provided Colombo is a transhipment point and not the end of the sea voyage under the contract of carriage.
2. Clause 8.3 keeps the insurance in force during delay beyond the control of the insured, any deviation, forced discharge, reshipment or transhipment, and any variation of the adventure arising from a liberty granted to carriers under the contract of carriage. A line using its bill of lading liberties to skip Colombo, discharge elsewhere or re-route through another hub sits inside this clause.

So a box moving on a through bill of lading from Tuticorin or Chennai to a US East Coast port, which misses its Colombo connection and waits ten days for the next mainline call, remains on cover. The ordinary course of transit has been slowed, not ended.

The harder case is when the carrier does not merely delay the onward leg but ends the contract at the intermediate port. Lines under schedule pressure sometimes terminate carriage at a hub, declare the voyage complete there, and leave the shipper to arrange and pay for on-carriage. Separate bookings raise a related question: where a feeder bill of lading ends at Colombo and a fresh mainline booking starts there, confirm with insurers that the policy treats Colombo as a transhipment point within the insured voyage and not as the final port of discharge, because that decides when the Clause 8.1 clock starts.

Clause 9 governs early termination by the carrier. If, owing to circumstances beyond the insured's control, the contract of carriage is terminated at a port other than the destination named in it, or the transit is otherwise terminated before unloading as provided in Clause 8, cover also terminates, unless prompt notice is given to insurers and continuation of cover is requested. If it is, cover continues subject to an additional premium if required, until the earlier of:

• the goods being sold and delivered at that port, or
• the expiry of 60 days after arrival of the goods at that port, unless they are forwarded within that period to the original or another destination, in which case cover runs on under Clause 8.

Two operational points follow. First, the word prompt carries weight. Insurers will read it against the date the shipper or its forwarder knew the carriage had ended, not the date the claim was lodged. Second, the 60 days run from arrival at the hub, not from the date the shipper found out. Cargo that sat at Colombo for three weeks before anyone escalated has already used a third of its window.

Clause 12, the forwarding charges clause, then becomes relevant. Where an insured risk causes the transit to terminate short of destination, insurers reimburse extra charges properly and reasonably incurred in unloading, storing and forwarding the goods. Congestion on its own is not an insured risk, and the clause expressly excludes charges arising from the fault, negligence, insolvency or financial default of the insured or its employees, and it remains subject to the delay exclusion, so ordinary schedule disruption will rarely trigger it.

Clause 9 is a safety net, not a plan. Shippers routing a steady volume through Colombo, or holding export cargo near Nhava Sheva and Mundra while bookings slip, should agree the extension terms in advance on their open cover.

What to ask for

• A held-covered provision for transhipment storage. The (2009) clauses already carry a change of voyage provision in Clause 10, under which cover can continue on rates and terms to be agreed. Ask insurers to confirm in writing that held-covered terms extend to cargo held at a named hub after a missed connection, at a premium rate agreed now rather than quoted under pressure.
• An extended-storage endorsement that lengthens the 60-day post-discharge or post-arrival window at named ports (Colombo, Nhava Sheva, Mundra and any other hubs the programme uses), with a per-location limit.
• An accumulation limit per location. Congestion concentrates cargo. A programme with a per-conveyance limit sized for one vessel can be heavily exceeded when several weeks of shipments pile up in the same terminal stack.
• Declaration mechanics that cope with re-routing. If a box moves from a Colombo-routed booking to a Vizhinjam or west coast routing, the declaration should follow without a fresh approval.

Where cargo will sit at a port or CFS for an extended period as a matter of routine, a transit-cum-storage or warehouse open cover is usually a cleaner fit than stretching marine duration clauses.

Reefer cargo is where a congestion delay turns into a physical loss quickly, and where the policy wording is least forgiving. Seafood, fresh produce and pharmaceuticals shipped from South Indian ports through Colombo all face a simple arithmetic: more days on plug at a hub means more exposure to power interruptions, gen-set faults and handling during restows.

The (A) clauses carry two exclusions that bite hard here:

1. Clause 4.4, loss caused by inherent vice or nature of the subject-matter. Gradual ripening, spoilage and loss of shelf life over a longer-than-planned voyage are characteristics of the goods, not fortuitous damage.
2. Clause 4.5, loss, damage or expense caused by delay, even where the delay is caused by an insured risk.

A claim for produce that simply aged during a 12-day wait at Colombo fails on both. A claim for frozen cargo that thawed because a reefer unit lost power during a terminal restow is different: the proximate cause is a fortuitous failure, not the passage of time. That distinction is why many perishable programmes add a specific refrigeration-breakdown extension, and why that extension usually requires the breakdown to have run for a minimum continuous period stated in the wording.

What the evidence file needs

• Continuous temperature logger downloads from stuffing to the claim date, not just the arrival reading.
• The terminal's plug-in and plug-out records at the transhipment hub.
• The carrier's reefer monitoring data, requested in writing immediately after the loss is suspected.

Without the hub records, a surveyor cannot separate a power event from ordinary deterioration, and the claim defaults to the inherent vice and delay exclusions.

Every congestion cycle produces the same set of costs that a cargo policy does not answer: missed sales windows, contract penalties for late delivery, demurrage and detention charged by lines and terminals, additional storage at the hub, and the working capital cost of inventory stuck on the water.

None of these is loss of or damage to the goods. The (A) form's insuring clause covers all risks of loss of or damage to the subject-matter insured, and Clause 4.5 excludes delay-caused loss and expense on top of that. Our post on the Mundra disruption and the marine delay exclusion sets out why attaching strikes clauses does not change this.

That leaves three places to manage the commercial cost of congestion:

• Sales contracts. Incoterms and delivery clauses decide who carries the hub delay. A CIF seller has passed risk at loading on board but may still face late-delivery claims if the contract fixes an arrival window.
• Carrier and forwarder terms. Free time, detention waivers and re-routing charges are negotiated commercially. Bills of lading generally give the line wide liberty to tranship and alter routing, which limits recovery.
• Specialist trade disruption cover. Where available, it is underwritten separately from marine cargo, priced on named triggers, and rarely offered once a disruption is already in progress.

For shipments currently routed through Colombo or queued at Nhava Sheva or Mundra, the following sequence keeps insurance options open while the operational team works the booking.

1. Classify each delayed box. Through bill of lading or separate legs? Has the carrier ended the contract of carriage, or only delayed the next leg? The answer decides whether Clause 8.3 or Clause 9 applies.
2. Diarise the clocks. Note the arrival date at any hub where carriage has terminated, and the discharge date at the final port for import cargo. Count 60 days from each, and flag anything past day 40.
3. Send written notice early. Where carriage has ended at an intermediate port, notify insurers or the broker in writing and request continuation under Clause 9. Notice costs nothing. Late notice can cost the cover.
4. Escalate reefer boxes first. Request plug-in records and monitoring data from the hub terminal and the line while the cargo is still there.
5. Preserve recovery rights. Clause 16 obliges the insured to take reasonable measures to avert or minimise loss and to preserve rights against carriers and bailees. Note exceptions on delivery documents and put the carrier on notice in writing.
6. Check accumulation. Add up the insured value sitting at each hub and compare it with the per-location and per-conveyance limits on the open cover.
7. Review the renewal file. Record which extensions were needed this cycle so the next renewal negotiates held-covered and extended-storage terms on evidence, not anecdote.

The October 2026 data gives a clear reason to run this drill now: about 12% of global vessel capacity absorbed by congestion, Colombo named alongside Nhava Sheva and Mundra, and conditions expected to last at least until mid-to-late October. Cargo cover generally survives the wait. The mistakes that lose claims are missed notices, expired clocks and missing temperature records.