India’s exporters to LatAm struggle with lack of space and rising rates

Indian exporters and forwarders moving freight to Latin America are grappling with major supply chain disruption amid a sharp drop in ship space availability.

According to market sources, loading allocations for India have been drastically reduced in recent weeks, as carriers recalibrated their tonnage strategies to cash in on the earlier-than-usual Asia peak season.

“Container lines have been holding back freight already cleared for export at the loading ports for the past few weeks,” one freight forwarder told The Loadstar.

“There is a serious shipping crisis,” the source complained.

As a result, freight rates ex-India to major LatAm ports have shot up dramatically.  For example, carriers are offering space at prices as high as $9,000 per 40ft to Santos and $8,500 to Paranagua, in Brazil, from Nhava Sheva (JNPA), sources said.

Indian trade sources have also reported sizeable cargo backlogs due to shippers’ inability to secure space from carriers operating on the tradelane.

Sources also believe higher shipping volumes have also been fuelled by a demand pickup for Indian exports into LatAm, with Brazil, Mexico and Colombia the major buying markets.

Capacity out of Asia for LatAm markets is traditionally controlled by Chinese export trade swings. India’s export trade with the region has gathered pace in the past few years, propelled in large part by automobile exports.

According to available data, Indian merchandise exports to Latin American by value were up 8% in the fiscal year 2025-26 despite the impact of tariff shocks. Similarly, after a sluggish performance last fiscal year through the end of March, India’s overall good,s export trade bounced back in the first two months of fiscal year 2026-27, up some 16% year on year by value, according to new provisional government data.

“The continued strong demand from both traditional and emerging markets reflects increasing global confidence in Indian products and services,” said SC Ralhan, president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations.

“The growing presence of Indian exporters in diverse geographies is helping strengthen India’s position in global trade and reducing dependence on a limited number of markets,” he added.

As Indian containerised export volumes see a strong upward movement, shippers now increasingly run the risk of a growing imbalance in supply and demand for shipping capacity across tradelanes, according to market participants.

“Supply chain reliability and resilience are critical to supporting the trade expansion,” one container industry analyst told The Loadstar.

Yard congestion and cargo clearance slowdowns at JNPA and Mundra ports had also frustrated Indian exporters/importers in recent months.

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