Container yard
A container yard (CY) is the area of a port terminal, an inland container depot (ICD) or a container freight station (CFS) where containers are stacked, full or empty, before they are loaded or after they are unloaded. India’s customs call it the largest area of an ICD or a CFS. Empty depots near the ports are yards too: shipping lines’ empty boxes are stored and repaired there. In our survey, a used 20 ft container is priced from ₹1,04,000.
Updated 23 Oct 2026What is a container yard?
A container yard is where containers wait between two journeys: on a port terminal, in an inland container depot or a container freight station, or in a depot for empty boxes. They arrive by truck, train or ship, wait in rows and stacks, and leave again. India’s customs guidelines for ICDs and CFSs say that the container yard “occupies the largest area in the ICD/CFS”, and that empty containers wait there too (Circular 50/2020-Customs). It is also called a container storage yard or, for empty boxes, an empty depot or empty yard; inland, the whole facility is an inland container depot, often called a dry port.
Container yard, CFS, ICD and empty container depot: the differences
| Place | What it is | Customs | What a buyer finds there |
|---|---|---|---|
| Container yard (CY) | the stacking area of a terminal, an ICD, a CFS or a depot | inside a customs area when it is part of a port, an ICD or a CFS | boxes in transit, not for sale |
| Inland container depot (ICD) | an inland facility linked to the seaports by rail or road | a customs station in its own right | import and export cargo cleared inland |
| Container freight station (CFS) | a facility near a port or an ICD where cargo is packed into and unpacked from containers | a customs area attached to a customs station | cargo, not containers for sale |
| Empty container depot or yard | a yard, usually private, where shipping lines’ and leasing companies’ empty boxes are stored, inspected and repaired | no customs licence of its own that we found; foreign boxes stay under a customs bond | empty boxes; retired ones go to traders |
Customs Act 1962, sections 2, 7 and 8; CBIC Circular 50/2020-Customs (an ICD is “a self-contained Customs station”, a CFS “cannot have an independent existence”); our reading for the empty depots, which no national rule we found regulates.
Container yard vs container freight station
A container yard holds containers; a container freight station handles cargo. In shipping terms, a full container load (FCL) is handed over and collected at the container yard, which is why bills of lading show terms such as “CY/CY”; less-than-container-load (LCL) cargo goes through a CFS, where it is grouped with other shippers’ goods or split up, under customs control. In India a CFS is always attached to a customs station, while an ICD is a customs station in its own right.
Container yards in India
- ICDs and CFSs: the latest official count we found is 129 ICDs and 168 CFSs in March 2017, from the Ministry of Commerce, in a 2018 report of the Comptroller and Auditor General. CONCOR, the public rail container operator, had 68 terminals in March 2026, by its annual report.
- Empty container yards: many are private yards around the big ports. In 2023, the Mumbai Port Authority listed six empty container storage yards on its own land, about 1.4 lakh m² in all.
- Rules for empty yards: we found no national licence for them. In Maharashtra, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board issued rules on 9 October 2026 for container freight stations and empty container yards, among them wheel washing at the gate and a concrete floor.
What is the largest container depot in India?
ICD Tughlakabad in Delhi, spread over 44 hectares, by the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report of 2018; we found no more recent official ranking.
Container yard charges: storage and free days
There is no national tariff: each CFS, ICD and empty yard sets its own charges, and customs rules require the operators of CFSs and ICDs to publish or display theirs. One public port’s scale gives an example. In the Mumbai Port Authority’s scale of rates (in force on 3 December 2025, indexed on 1 May 2026), an empty container stored outside the customs area pays US$1.53 a day for a 20 ft box, $3.04 for a 40 ft and $4.57 for a longer one, and about five times as much inside it ($7.60, $15.23 and $22.84). At that port, the first 3 days are free for empty and full import containers, and 5 days for full export containers. Ask any other yard for its tariff in writing.
Goods that customs seizes or detains pay no rent or demurrage to the CFS or ICD that keeps them, by a 2012 instruction of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (now the CBIC); goods simply waiting for clearance pay the normal charges once the free days are over. Shipping lines also charge for keeping their boxes beyond their own free days; we found no permanent Indian rule on those charges.
Buying a used container from a yard
Ports, ICDs and CFSs are customs areas where boxes wait for their cargo: they do not sell containers. Used boxes are sold by traders, from their own yards or from empty depots. Before you pay:
- Ask for the customs papers. A container that brings cargo into India enters duty-free, under a bond to take it out again within 6 months (Notification 45/2025-Customs, entry 414). To stay in India it must be cleared for home consumption on a bill of entry, with the duty paid, as the Nhava Sheva customs house set out in 2008. For a box that came from abroad, ask the seller for that bill of entry, with its number and date: a box that was never cleared still owes the duty, with interest and a penalty. The importing a container guide gives the rates.
- See the box in the yard. Check its number, the floor, the roof and the doors, in daylight; a box retired from shipping may no longer carry a valid CSC plate, which matters only if it is to go to sea again (how to inspect a used container).
- Agree the release. Ask what document lets the box leave the yard, who loads it onto the truck, and whether the yard charges for the lift and for each day after the sale. Pay a registered business against a tax invoice (used containers for sale lists the checks).
- Plan the trip. A trailer, or a truck with its own crane, takes it to your site: the delivered price estimate and site preparation and unloading explain the rest.
Container yard near me
In our survey, used containers are sold from depots and yards near the ports and in the big inland markets: Navi Mumbai and Thane near Nhava Sheva, Mundra and Gandhidham in Kutch, Chennai, Kolkata and Kochi, and dealers around Delhi NCR, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. Asia Containers does not run a yard: put your PIN code in a quote request, and the partner sellers who cover it reply with a delivered price.
How much does an empty 40 ft container cost?
In our survey of 20 October 2026, a used 40 ft container is priced from ₹1,55,000 and a new or one-trip 40 ft from ₹3,45,000; a used 20 ft from ₹1,04,000 and a new 20 ft from ₹2,25,000. Container prices in India gives the typical prices by size and condition.
Related pages
Published 23 October 2026. Facts from the Customs Act 1962, circulars and notifications of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs and of the Nhava Sheva customs house, the Mumbai Port Authority's list of empty yards (2023) and scale of rates, a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (2018), CONCOR's annual report 2025-26 and the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, checked on 23 October 2026; prices from the reading of sellers' asking prices of 20 October 2026.