Where we work · Karachi Port
Karachi Port has three container terminals, not one.
Shafiq Traders · Updated 13 September 2026
Karachi Port, run by the Karachi Port Trust, has three container terminals: KICT, SAPT, and the terminal on the East Wharf that traded as PICT until 2023 and now operates as Karachi Gateway Terminal under a new concession. A separate terminal on the same wharf, Karachi Gateway Terminal Multipurpose, handles bulk and general cargo, not containers. Port Qasim, down the coast at Bin Qasim, is a different port with its own terminal, QICT — the two are not the same place, whatever a search engine suggests. We clear at whichever Karachi Port terminal your container is actually on.
One port, three container terminals
Karachi Port Trust owns the port. It does not run the container terminals itself; each one operates under its own concession, and which terminal your box lands on depends on which one the shipping line's vessel is booked into, not on anything we decide.
That distinction is worth getting right, because it is the fact most commonly got wrong in anything written for shippers about this port. Karachi Port and Port Qasim are two different ports under two different authorities. QICT, the terminal most people mean when they say "Qasim," is not at Karachi Port at all.
The container terminals at Karachi Port
| Terminal | Wharf | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| KICT — Karachi International Container Terminal | West Wharf | Hutchison Ports, since 1998 |
| SAPT — South Asia Pakistan Terminal | Deep-water berths | Hutchison Ports, since 2016 |
| Karachi Gateway Terminal | East Wharf | AD Ports Group and Kaheel Terminals, since 2023 — the same berths that traded as PICT from 2002 to 2023 |
What is not a container terminal here
Karachi Gateway Terminal Multipurpose runs a separate terminal on the same East Wharf, for steel, grain, clinker and other bulk and general cargo. It shares an owner with Karachi Gateway Terminal, but it does not handle containers.
Al-Hamd International Container Terminal is a private, off-dock facility near the port, used mainly for de-stuffing and storage, rather than a berth a vessel calls at. It is not one of the three terminals a container actually arrives on.
What happens once your container is at the terminal
Which terminal changes where we stand. It does not change what we do.
The vessel berths
Whichever terminal the shipping line is booked into — KICT, SAPT or Karachi Gateway Terminal — the IGM is filed as the vessel arrives.
The Goods Declaration
Filed on the Pakistan Single Window. Assessment for Karachi imports goes to a Central Appraising Unit rather than an officer at the terminal.
Examination, if it is called
If the system selects the file, we are at the terminal the container is actually sitting at, not the one we expected.
Charges, duty and gate-out
We settle the terminal's own charges alongside the duty and taxes, then move the container out to your address.
Companies we have cleared through Karachi Port
From listed industrial groups to importers running a container a month, most of what moves through this port for our clients moves through one of its three terminals.
Comfort Knitwears · H. Sheikh Noor-ud-Din & Sons · Z-KAP (Zulfiqar Knitting & Processing Mills)
Which terminal your container lands on is the shipping line's decision, made at the booking stage, not ours. A terminal running behind its own schedule is not something a clearing agent can move around. What we control is being at the right one, with the file ready, when it is.
Questions
What shippers ask us about Karachi Port
Contact
Tell us what is coming.
Give us the product, the port and roughly when the vessel is due, and we will tell you what the clearance involves and what it will cost.