A persistent and critical backlog, with nearly half of all cargo remaining uncleared daily at the Karachi International Container Terminal (KICT), is severely disrupting national supply chains and inflating business costs, the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) has warned.
In a statement today, KCCI President Rehan Hanif expressed serious concern that the prolonged congestion is profoundly undermining the ease of doing business and poses a significant threat to trade operations.
The primary cause of the bottleneck, according to the Chamber, is an acute shortage of Customs personnel. Hanif pointed out that the examination process is excessively slow and requires a substantial increase in manpower to at least 25 staffers supervised by two senior officials to function effectively. He added that frequent staff rotations further exacerbate delays in the clearance process.
Compounding the congestion issue are more than 2,000 containers imported under the Afghan Transit Trade agreement that are currently stranded at the terminal, occupying valuable space and resources.
Hanif lamented the paradoxical situation where expensive, state-of-the-art container scanners, capable of processing a container in under a minute, remain underutilised. He attributed this failure to inadequate training for technical staff, a lack of awareness of the scanners” full capabilities, and insufficient monitoring personnel, all contributing to unnecessary delays.
The KCCI President recounted that despite assurances from the Chief Collector of Customs to prioritise containers with single-item industrial raw materials, these directives are reportedly not being implemented, causing unjustified hold-ups for consignments vital for industrial production.
Another significant impediment identified is the slow installation of tracking devices on lorries. ‘The process of installing trackers on a single truck takes four to five hours, which leads to long queues, delays cargo evacuation, and significantly increases the cost of doing business,’ Hanif observed, calling for an urgent review of the mechanism.
He also noted a long-standing structural issue where the high volume of miscellaneous cargo handled by KICT inherently requires time-consuming manual unpacking and repacking for examination, consistently choking terminal operations.
A more severe crisis looms, Hanif warned, as an unusually large influx of consignments is anticipated between the 5th and 15th of February 2026. This surge is driven by importers placing advance orders to circumvent the extended closure of factories in China for the Chinese New Year, coinciding with increased imports for the approaching Eid season.
‘If immediate corrective measures are not taken, the situation at KICT may deteriorate further, leading to severe congestion, shortages of goods in local markets, and financial losses for importers as well as terminal operators,’ he cautioned.
The KCCI has strongly appealed to the Federal Minister for Finance, the Chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), and the Member for Customs Operations to intervene urgently. The Chamber is demanding adequate staffing, the effective use of scanning technology, expedited clearance for industrial materials, and a rationalisation of the tracker installation process.
‘Timely intervention is essential not only to safeguard trade and industry but also to stabilise markets and protect consumers from artificial shortages and price hikes,’ Hanif concluded.