Port Brief — October 2026
Published 2 October 2026 · By Dominique Zuffour
Ships still wait up to 20 days at Toamasina. The new cranes are only half the fix.
Three months after Madagascar's first quay cranes went into service, the vessel queue has not cleared. September readings show a four-day average wait and individual vessels at 20 days, with the real constraint sitting on the RN2 rather than the berth. Meanwhile a new Comoros–Nacala line has started calling, the full C4 quay is due to complete this quarter, and October brings another wave of carrier surcharges. Here is where the port actually stands.
20 days
Worst-case vessel delay
Individual vessels have run to 20 days this quarter. Seven-day average wait is roughly 4 days (World Ports report, 22 September 2026).
RN2
The actual bottleneck
The Toamasina–Antananarivo road carries the landside queue. Truck turn times feed terminal yard density, which feeds the next vessel's wait.
14,000 TEU
C4 berth capability
Up from the 3,000 TEU ceiling. Full 470m quay expected to complete this quarter; STS cranes in service since 13 July.
17 Sep
New UAFL line called
Toamasina–Mutsamudu–Nacala service adds a direct Comoros and Mozambique link for the first time.
Congestion diagnosis
The cranes are working. The road is not.
At the quay
Improving
The two ZPMC ship-to-shore cranes have been working since mid-July, and berth productivity on equipped slots is materially better than the mobile-crane baseline. As commissioning completes, quay time per box should keep falling — that part of the system is moving in the right direction.
In the yard
Strained
Vessel waits near four days on average are consistent with a terminal absorbing cargo faster than the landside can clear it. Yard density rises, move times slow, and the queue lengthens even when crane productivity is fine.
On the RN2
The constraint
Trucks bound for Antananarivo queue against the same corridor that carries the port's import and export flows. Delayed truck turn times are the single biggest driver of the 20-day outliers — this is a road problem wearing a port costume.
In the schedule
Volatile
Carriers are absorbing the Hormuz disruption and Colombo congestion on the connecting legs. Actual arrival times on Asia and India strings vary by several days from schedule, which means vessel queue predictions and truck plans drift together. Book on windows, not on dates.
Infrastructure ramp
C4 completes this quarter. What changes when it does.
333 metres of the new quay has been operational since March, the STS cranes since July, and the remaining 470-metre completion is expected inside this quarter. Once the terminal works at full specification, Toamasina handles 14,000 TEU vessels as a matter of routine instead of an exception — tripling the previous ceiling and opening the door to mainline calls that skip Port Louis, Reunion, and Colombo transhipment altogether.
The ramp period is the awkward part. New equipment, extended yard, and evolving berth plans produce schedule variability that has nothing to do with demand. Carriers notice it, and they build buffer into schedules — which quietly keeps the queue lengthened even as individual moves get faster. Expect the congestion readings to improve in steps rather than in one drop, and hold the July experience lightly: the first months of any terminal expansion look worse before they look better.
Carrier services — October 2026
Who's calling, what's new.
CMA CGM
Weekly
Phoenix (Far East) + Indian Ocean rotation
Dominant carrier, via Singapore and Colombo transhipment for China origin. Peak season surcharges: $400/TEU from China, $250/TEU other Far East, live since 10 August.
PIL
Weekly (since 6 Aug)
Indian Ocean Express (IOX)
Singapore → Port Louis → Reunion → Tamatave. Also continues the Durban–Tamatave direct — the least disruption-exposed string into the port.
UAFL
Launched 17 Sep
Toamasina–Mutsamudu–Nacala — NEW
First direct Comoros and Mozambique link from Toamasina. Opens a west-coast option that bypasses the Durban and Colombo routings entirely.
MSC
Weekly
Jebel Ali rotation
Gulf connection with Cape Town coverage. Gulf-origin cargo carries emergency fuel surcharges and longer booking windows into year-end.
Maersk/Safmarine
Fortnightly
Via Colombo hub
Project and heavy cargo. Colombo's 2–3 day anchorage waits sit directly on this routing — expect schedule slippage through October.
Madagascar Maritime Week ran 22–24 September in Antananarivo — the industry's main venue for service and infrastructure announcements this quarter.
Operator actions
What to do this month.
1
Plan arrivals against the queue, not the schedule
A four-day average wait with 20-day outliers means the ETA on the booking is a starting point, not a plan. If you are dispatching trucks or scheduling production around an arrival, pull the vessel's actual queue position first — we track it weekly.
2
Price October's surcharges into your quote now
Maersk's 15 October peak season surcharge, CMA CGM's live PSS on both Far East ranges, and a fresh CMA CGM wave announced on 2 October all touch Toamasina lanes. Our Q4 rate brief has the full calendar with dates and amounts.
3
Use the new line where the routing fits
UAFL's Toamasina–Mutsamudu–Nacala service and PIL's Durban direct both avoid the congested transhipment hubs. For cargo moving between Madagascar, Comoros, Mozambique, and South Africa, they are worth pricing before you default to the Far East string.
4
Treat the RN2 as part of your transit time
Inland haulage to Antananarivo is where free time gets burned. Coordinate trucking for release-day pickup, keep consignees ready with delivery orders before arrival, and consider consolidating less urgent cargo rather than paying demurrage on boxes sitting for the road.
5
Watch the C4 completion window
The full 470-metre quay is due to complete this quarter. When it does, mainline vessel calls become realistic rather than exceptional — fewer transhipment moves, shorter total transit on some corridors. Operators with long-haul volume should ask us what the ramp means for their lane specifically.
Questions we get
Toamasina — October 2026 FAQ.
- How long are vessels waiting at Toamasina right now?
- The seven-day average vessel wait sits at roughly four days as of late September 2026, with individual vessels running as long as 20 days. The queue is only half the problem — the landside bottleneck on the RN2 to Antananarivo delays truck turn times, which backs cargo up in the terminal yard and feeds the next vessel's wait. Congestion readings come from the World Ports report published 22 September 2026.
- What is the status of the C4 berth in October 2026?
- 333 metres of the new container quay has been operational since 21 March 2026, with the full 470 metres expected to complete this quarter. Two ZPMC ship-to-shore cranes — the first ever installed in Madagascar — have been in service since 13 July. The berth handles vessels up to 14,000 TEU against the old 3,000 TEU ceiling. Expect continuing commissioning variability while the terminal integrates the new equipment into berth planning.
- Which services call Toamasina in October 2026?
- CMA CGM runs the dominant Far East string via Singapore and Colombo. PIL's Indian Ocean Express (Singapore–Port Louis–Reunion–Tamatave) has been weekly since 6 August, alongside its Durban–Tamatave direct. MSC maintains the Jebel Ali rotation, and Maersk connects via Colombo. New in September: a UAFL line linking Toamasina with Mutsamudu in Comoros and Nacala in Mozambique, first call 17 September 2026.
- Are there new surcharges on Toamasina lanes in October?
- Yes. CMA CGM peak season surcharges have been live since 7 April ($500/TEU from Southeast Asia) and 10 August ($400/TEU from China, $250/TEU from other Far East). Maersk adds a peak season surcharge from 15 October on Far East–South Africa and Mauritius strings — Madagascar is not named yet but typically follows within weeks. A further CMA CGM wave was announced on 2 October. Our Q4 rate brief carries the full calendar.
- How do I avoid demurrage and detention at current delay levels?
- Plan against queue data, not the schedule on the booking. Confirm free-time terms before the vessel sails, build at least a week of buffer into the arrival window for anything time-critical, and coordinate RN2 trucking so containers are pulled the day they are released rather than held for consolidation. The port intelligence dashboard tracks congestion and dwell trends weekly.
Moving cargo through Toamasina this quarter? Let us plan around the queue.
We watch MICTSL terminal operations, carrier schedules, and the RN2 landside in real time. Send your routing and we come back with the realistic transit, the booking lead time, and what October's surcharges add to your lane.