Mundra Port CFS and customs clearance (INMUN1)

Scapex books, clears and follows through at Mundra ourselves, so accountability for your shipment does not change hands at the gate.

Gateway details

What we handle at Mundra

• Booking and equipment release against a named vessel or flight
• Inland haulage from the factory, by road or rail
• Customs filing, examination coordination and follow-through
• VGM declaration supported by a weighbridge certificate
• Bill of lading drafting, checking and release

The code you file against: INMUN1

Mundra’s customs station code is INMUN1. That is the code that goes on a shipping bill or a bill of entry, and the code an exporter registers an AD code against before a first shipment through this gate. The UN/LOCODE is the same string, which is unusual and convenient — at many Indian gateways the trade code and the customs code differ, and the customs one is always the one to file.

One qualification that saves real time. Mundra is not a single shed. Cargo is handled at the port terminals and at a number of container freight stations around the port, and the precise location code your filing has to carry depends on the facility the cargo will actually be handled at, not on the word “Mundra”. Before a first consignment, confirm the exact code on ICEGATE against the facility your broker is nominating. Filing against the wrong location is one of the more tedious errors to unwind, because the correction is not just a typo — the entry has to be refiled.

What Mundra is

Mundra sits in Kutch district, about 350 kilometres from Ahmedabad by road. It opened in 1998, is operated by Adani Ports and SEZ, and is India’s largest commercial port by cargo — reported as the first Indian port to cross 200 million tonnes in a year in March 2025. It is also India’s first multi-product port-based special economic zone, and it is rail-connected to Adipur on a line built for double-stack container trains.

For a Gujarat exporter, the part of that which matters is not the tonnage. It is the carrier coverage. Because the volume is here, the services are here: Europe, the Mediterranean, the US east and west coasts and the Far East all have direct or well-connected options out of Mundra, which is why a shipment that would need a transshipment from a smaller Gujarat port often does not need one from this gate. Volumes, terminal capacity and service patterns change, so treat the figures above as a dated snapshot and confirm current sailings before you commit to a date.

What a CFS at Mundra is, and why your container goes to one

A container freight station is a customs-notified facility outside the port gate where containers are stuffed, de-stuffed, examined and stored. Cargo goes to one for reasons that are worth understanding, because each has a cost attached:

• LCL consolidation and de-consolidation. A less-than-container-load shipment has to be physically separated from the other cargo in the box. That happens at a CFS, not at the quay.
• Customs examination. Where the risk system calls a consignment for examination, the container is moved to a CFS and opened there.
• Decongesting the port. Import containers are moved out of the terminal to a CFS so the terminal is not used as a warehouse. This happens whether or not you asked for it.
• Export stuffing for shippers who do not stuff at their own factory.

Every one of those steps is chargeable — container handling from the port, de-stuffing or stuffing, ground rent once the free period ends, labour, documentation, and extras such as fumigation, palletisation or weighment. The CFS bill is frequently larger than the import duty on a small consignment, and it is the part of the cost that surprises first-time importers.

Who chooses the CFS — and why it lands on your bill

This is the question behind most Mundra cost disputes, and the answer is uncomfortable: on an import, you often do not choose. The shipping line nominates the CFS for the container unless the consignee has given a valid nomination in time and the line accepts it. If nothing is nominated, the line sends the box where it suits the line.

The practical consequence is that a CFS nomination has to be made before the container is moved out of the terminal, not after the invoice arrives. Once the container has been carted to a facility, moving it to a different one costs more than leaving it there. If the CFS matters to you — because of location, because of handling for your commodity, or because you have negotiated a tariff — it has to be raised at the time the import general manifest is filed, not at delivery order stage.

On exports the choice is more genuinely yours, and it turns on whether you stuff at the factory or at the CFS.

Factory stuffing versus CFS stuffing from Ahmedabad

Factory stuffing means the container comes to your plant, is loaded under the permission granted for self-sealing, and travels sealed to the port. It suits full-container loads, cargo that is awkward to handle twice, and shippers with the space and discipline to load properly. It removes a handling step and the cost attached to it.

CFS stuffing suits LCL, part loads, cargo that needs consolidation with other shipments, and shippers without the yard space for a trailer. It costs more per shipment but removes the need for permissions and plant handling.

From the Ahmedabad belt the road leg to Mundra is the same either way, so the decision is about handling and control, not distance. Where the cargo is moving from further inland, rail through an inland depot changes the arithmetic again — our page on ICDs and CFSs in India sets out the difference between the two, which is more than a naming convention.

How customs actually works here

On an import: the carrier files the import general manifest, a bill of entry is filed on ICEGATE against the correct Mundra location, duty is assessed and paid, the consignment is examined if the risk management system calls for it, and an out-of-charge order releases it. The container then moves against a delivery order from the line, and a CFS will not release cargo until its own charges are settled as well.

On an export: the shipping bill is filed, the container is stuffed at the factory or the CFS, customs grants a let-export order, and the container gates in at the port against the vessel cut-off. The cut-off is the deadline that actually governs the shipment — a container that reaches the gate after it does not sail on that vessel, whatever the booking says. The full sequence is set out on our customs clearance page, and the paperwork on the documents checklist.

The clock that costs money

Two separate clocks run at Mundra and they are frequently confused. Demurrage is charged by the shipping line for its container sitting inside the terminal beyond the free period. Ground rent is charged by the CFS for occupying its yard. A container can be accruing both. Free periods differ by line, by CFS, by commodity and by contract, and they change, so the only number worth planning against is the one confirmed for your shipment on the day. How the two clocks interact, and where a waiver is genuinely available rather than merely worth asking for, is covered on our demurrage and detention page.

Tracking a container at Mundra

There is no single Mundra tracking screen that covers everything, which is why searches for one lead in circles. A container has at least two separate trails: the shipping line’s, which follows the box from load port to discharge, and the terminal or CFS system, which shows what has happened to it on the ground here. Our tracking page reads a container or bill of lading number, works out which line issued it, and takes you to that carrier’s own live milestones rather than a stale copy of them. For the CFS leg, the facility holding your container is the authority on where it is.

When Mundra is the right gate — and when it is not

Mundra is our default for Gujarat cargo, which is exactly why it is worth saying where it is not the answer.

Mundra usually wins on carrier choice and on lanes where the alternative is a transshipment. For most FCL exports out of the Ahmedabad belt it is the first thing we price.

Pipavav often wins for Saurashtra shippers, where the shorter inland leg is worth more than a small difference in ocean rate. Hazira is the natural gate for south Gujarat. Nhava Sheva wins where a thin trade has no direct call from Gujarat at all. We quote the alternatives rather than defaulting to the nearest, and on a close call we will say which one we would use and why.

What goes wrong at Mundra

• AD code not registered at this station. Registration is station-specific; an exporter who has only shipped air from Ahmedabad has none here.
• CFS nomination raised too late. After the container has moved, changing facility costs more than accepting it.
• Cut-off treated as the sailing date. The gate-in cut-off is earlier, and the documentation cut-off earlier still.
• VGM not matching the packing list. The declared weight, the weighbridge certificate and the bill of lading have to agree; they are cross-checked.
• Free days assumed from a previous shipment. They vary by line, contract and commodity, and they are revised.
• Delivery order obtained without settling CFS charges. Both have to be cleared before the cargo moves, and they are billed by different parties.

Where to check the official position

• ICEGATE — to confirm the exact location code for the facility you are filing against, to check AD code and IEC registration, and to track a filed shipping bill or bill of entry.
• CBIC — for the notifications and circulars behind assessment, examination, self-sealing permission and any scheme you are claiming under.
• DGFT — for IEC status and the export policy applying to your HS code.

Rates, free periods, CFS tariffs, cut-offs and sailing schedules all change. Nothing on this page is a quotation, and none of it should be relied on in place of the current position confirmed for your shipment.

Tracking a shipment through Mundra

Once a bill of lading or air waybill is issued, follow it on our tracking page. It reads the reference, works out which carrier issued it, and takes you to their own live milestones.