President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Rehan Hanif, while expressing serious concern over the persistent backlog of nearly 50 percent cargo at Karachi International Container Terminal (KICT) every day, warned that the prolonged congestion is severely disrupting supply chains, inflating costs, and undermining ease of doing business.

In a statement issued, President KCCI pointed out that the primary cause of congestion at KICT is the acute shortage of Customs staff, particularly for consignments marked for examination that needs to be raised to at least 25 staffers overseen by two senior officials. “The examination process at KICT remains excessively slow, resulting in an average backlog of around 50 percent containers each day”, he said, adding that frequent rotation of staff further delays the clearance process.

He also mentioned that more than 2,000 containers imported under the Afghan Transit Trade that are stranded at KICT are another major cause of excessive congestion.

Rehan Hanif regretted that despite the installation of state-of-the-art container scanners costing millions of dollars, which are technically capable of scanning a container within less than a minute, the clearance process remains inexplicably slow. He attributed this to inadequate training of technical staff, lack of awareness regarding the full capabilities of these advanced scanners, non-availability of live streaming features, and insufficient monitoring personnel, all of which collectively cause unnecessary delays.

Referring to a meeting of a KCCI delegation with the Chief Collector of Customs, the President of KCCI stated that it was clearly assured that containers carrying a single item or raw material meant for industrial use would be cleared on a priority basis, and that instructions were also issued to that effect. However, he lamented that these directives are not being implemented in letter and spirit, resulting in unjustified delays even for straightforward consignments critical for industrial production.

He further highlighted that the installation of tracking devices on trucks has emerged as another serious bottleneck. “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,” he observed, adding that this entire mechanism urgently needs review and streamlining.

President KCCI also pointed out that KICT handles a large volume of miscellaneous cargo, which inherently requires unpacking for examination and then repacking, a time-consuming process that frequently leads to congestion. “This structural issue has persisted for a long time and continues to choke terminal operations”, he noted.

Warning of imminent pressure on the terminal, Rehan Hanif stated that between 5th February and 15th February 2026, an unusually large number of consignments are expected to arrive at KICT. This surge is due to the extended factory closures in China for the Chinese New Year, prompting importers to place maximum orders in advance. Simultaneously, the Eid season is approaching, during which the influx of miscellaneous consumer goods is a routine phenomenon.

“In such circumstances, 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 warned.

President KCCI strongly appealed to the Federal Minister for Finance, Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), and Member Customs Operations to urgently intervene in this pressing matter by ensuring adequate staffing, effective utilisation of scanning technology, expedited clearance of industrial raw materials, and rationalisation of the tracker installation process.