Chennai Port's daily container handling hits five-year high

CHENNAI: Chennai Port handled 9,929 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers on October 25, its highest daily throughput in five years, surpassing the previous high of 9,910 TEUs recorded on January 27, 2024.

The port's all-time daily high remains 10,063 TEUs, recorded on January 28, 2017. The daily record comes against a backdrop of rising annual container traffic at the port. Chennai Port handled 1.9 million TEUs in 2025–26, up from 1.82 million TEUs in the previous financial year. Its overall cargo volume reached 57.90 million tonnes in 2025–26.

Separately, efforts had been made to improve the movement of containers through the port. In September 2026, the port introduced Port Setu, a system to track export containers moving by road from container freight stations to the port gate. It uses number-plate recognition, text recognition and RFID readers to monitor trailer movements and is intended to improve truck utilisation and reduce turnaround time.

A dedicated empty-container yard also became operational on September 1. The facility is intended to free up terminal space occupied by empty containers, allowing better utilisation of available space for cargo operations.

The port has also earmarked additional space for transshipment containers affected by the West Asia crisis.