Customs brokers in Chennai
Providers serving Chennai, India. An independent listing for packers, growers and traders.
Nearest port
Chennai ships through the Port of Chennai (INMAA).
Chennai based clearing and forwarding firm with 22 years of experience providing customs house agent services, freight forwarding, fleet management and truck contracting for global clients.
Freight forwarder, customs house agent and logistics provider with offices across Chennai, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and New Delhi offering end to end clearance and multimodal transport.
Chennai firm established in 1993 acting as customs broker, freight forwarder and 3PL provider, specialising in import clearances of all commodities plus project cargo, machinery and ODC shipments.
Chennai based firm established in 2014 offering international freight forwarding, consolidation and custom broking with door to door cargo transport by air, sea or road worldwide.
India based supply chain provider offering single window solutions across sea freight, air freight, cargo consolidation, project cargo and customs clearance through a global partner network.
Chennai customs broker and freight forwarder established in 1955, providing customs clearance, certificate of origin services, freight forwarding, warehousing and international trade consultancy.
Chennai based customs broker, freight forwarder and third party logistics company specialising in customs clearance and end to end logistics management by land, sea and air across South India.
Customs house agent and consolidator offering international sea freight forwarding, transport insurance, air freight, bonded warehousing and export import licensing assistance from Chennai.
Kochi-headquartered licensed customs broker and steamer agency (part of the TPM/Teepeyem group) operating since 1965, with a branch office at Tuticorin.
ATC Global Logistics Pvt. Ltd. (branded as ATC Group; the licensed entity is registered as A.T.C. (Clearing & Shipping) Pvt. Ltd., CHA No. 11-149) is a licensed Customs Broker headquartered in Lower Parel, Mumbai, with an additional office in Dronagiri Node adjoining Nhava Sheva (JNPT). It is ISO 9001:2008 certified and provides customs clearance, ocean and air freight forwarding, and ICEGATE-registered customs documentation filing from 23 own offices in 15 Indian cities.
Navi Mumbai-based licensed Customs House Agent (JNPT CHA licence no. 11-1203) operating from CBD Belapur, offering customs clearance and ship agency services.
Mumbai-based licensed Customs House Agent (JNPT CHA licence no. 11-321) offering customs clearance and ocean/air/road freight forwarding out of Ballard Estate, Mumbai.
Cargomen Logistics (India) Private Limited is an ISO 9001:2015-certified customs broker and freight forwarder headquartered in Hyderabad, with a dedicated Mumbai City Office and a separate airport office in Andheri (East), Mumbai. It is a licensed Customs Broker (CHA No. 11-1603 on the Mumbai/JNPT registry) offering customs brokerage plus air, ocean, and road freight forwarding.
Family-owned shipping, customs broking and logistics group operating since 1952, with its own licensed offices at Chennai, Cochin, Kolkata and Tuticorin among 13 Indian port cities.
Long-established (1916) Mumbai shipping and ship-agency house, licensed as a Customs House Agent (JNPT CHA no. 11-1141) at Fort, Mumbai, with branch offices at multiple Indian ports.
Continental Carriers Pvt. Ltd. is a licensed Customs Broker (CHA No. 11-1060 on the Mumbai/JNPT registry) and freight forwarder headquartered in New Delhi, with a regional office in Andheri (East), Mumbai. It offers customs brokerage and compliance advisory alongside air, ocean, and road freight forwarding, and holds ISO 9001, GDP RA-3, and C-TPAT (Category-A) certifications.
Global Agencies is a customs clearance and freight forwarding agency based in Kochi, Kerala, founded in 1985 by Manoj Kuriakose. It provides customs brokerage services for import and export shipments in the Kochi area.
Indian Shipping Services (ISS) is a licensed customs house agent (CHA) operating at Tuticorin Port, Tamil Nadu, providing customs broking and freight forwarding services for import and export shipments.
Jeena & Company is a licensed Customs House Agent (CHA No. 11-25 on the Mumbai/JNPT customs broker registry) and freight forwarder headquartered in Andheri (East), Mumbai, with a branch office in the Fort commercial district. It offers customs clearance and brokerage, air and sea freight forwarding, and import/export documentation services, and markets a 125-year operating history.
Livingston International is a customs broker offering customs clearance, trade consulting, and freight forwarding. It operates from around 100 networked offices across the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Merliz Logistics Pvt. Ltd. is a customs house agent (CHA) and freight forwarding company based in Kochi, Kerala, established in 1994. It holds its own CHA license, operates a warehouse at Kalamassery, and also serves as a vessel handling agent for ships berthing at Cochin Port.
Professional Impex Pvt Ltd is a New Delhi-headquartered customs broker offering customs clearance, air and ocean freight forwarding, warehousing and distribution, with a branch office in Kolkata (Wellesley House, Red Cross Place) alongside its Delhi head office and further offices in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Visakhapatnam.
Rishi Kiran Logistics Private Limited, trading as Kiran Group, is a Gandhidham, Gujarat-based conglomerate founded in 1982 holding its own customs house agent licences at Kandla, Mundra, Hazira, Pipavav, Dahej and Kolkata ports, alongside port handling, warehousing and transportation operations.
Ruth Shipping Agencies Private Limited is a licensed customs house agent (CHA) headquartered in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, with a branch office in Chennai. It specializes in container import and export clearing and forwarding, and states it handles more than 500 TEUs of container traffic per month.
Sahyog Global Logistics Pvt Ltd (registered as Sahyog Logistics Solutions Private Limited) is a licensed customs house agent and freight forwarder based in the Patparganj (I.P. Extension) area of East Delhi, offering customs clearance, freight forwarding, free trade warehousing zone and transportation services.
Samruddhii Global, operating as a unit of Navkar Logistics Pvt. Ltd. (CHA No. 11-473 on the Mumbai/JNPT registry), is a licensed Customs House Agent based in Andheri (East), Mumbai. It specializes in customs clearance and freight forwarding at Nhava Sheva (JNPT) and Mumbai air cargo, particularly for trade routes to and from China and Hong Kong.
Chennai-headquartered, listed integrated logistics company (CFS, warehousing and customs broking) with 6+ decades of operating history.
Star India Logistics is the customs brokerage and freight-forwarding operating company of Mumbai-based Star Group, founded in 2000 by Shashikant Mali, providing customs clearance, air/sea freight forwarding, inland transportation and CFS coordination at Indian ports and airports.
Kolkata-headquartered licensed Customs House Agent (CHA) and freight forwarder with 40+ years of operating history.
Thakker Clearing Agency Pvt. Ltd., trading as Thakker Group, is a Mumbai-based licensed customs house agent at Nhava Sheva (JNPT) offering clearing, forwarding and transportation services, with its office located opposite the Mulund Container Freight Station.
Descartes Systems Group provides customs and regulatory compliance solutions, including customs declarations, security filings, Harmonized System classification, denied party screening, and export compliance. It serves customers across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.
Tiger Logistics (India) Ltd. is a BSE- and NSE-listed international logistics company headquartered in New Delhi, with a dedicated Nhava Sheva (JNPT) port office and a CBD Belapur regional office in Navi Mumbai handling customs clearance, air/ocean freight forwarding and project cargo.
Titan Sea & Air Services Pvt. Ltd. is a Mumbai-based, ISO 9001:2015-certified and AEO-accredited customs house agent with over 30 years of experience in freight management, project logistics and customs clearance at Nhava Sheva (JNPT).
V S Bhagwati Shipping Pvt. Ltd. is a customs house agent and international freight forwarder registered in Gurgaon, Haryana, with a regional office in South Delhi in the Tughlakabad postal area (PIN 110044), alongside further offices in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Mundra and Assam. It offers customs clearance, freight forwarding, transportation, warehousing and liaison services and cites CHA License No. 11/09 on its own site.
WCI Shipping Pvt. Ltd. is a Mumbai-based licensed customs house agent serving Nhava Sheva (JNPT), in business since 1979, offering customs broking, international freight forwarding and surface transportation with its own trucks and reefer-container handling.
Y.K. Logistics is a Navi Mumbai-based freight forwarding and customs clearance firm operating since 2007, serving Nhava Sheva (JNPT) with door-to-door, warehousing and transportation services from its Vashi office.
Licensed customs broker in Mumbai's Fort area handling port, airport, and seaport clearance, break bulk shipping, project cargo movement, and warehouse and distribution operations, with an affiliated freight forwarding subsidiary.
Delhi customs broker and freight forwarder providing customs clearance, ocean and air freight forwarding, inland transport, warehousing and project cargo for all types of consignments.
Mumbai-based licensed customs broker under CBLR regulations, offering import customs broking at Indian ports and airports, air and sea freight forwarding, regulatory compliance consulting for CDSCO, FSSAI, BIS, and WPC, and bonded warehousing.
Mumbai-based clearing, forwarding, and customs brokerage business operating under CHA license 11/2046, part of Group Delta's integrated logistics and supply chain operations spanning India and the Middle East.
Licensed customs house agent and shipping agency headquartered in Ahmedabad with Mumbai operations, coordinating vessel arrivals, customs clearance, terminal and cargo handling, and stevedoring through a 24/7 operations command center.
A Kolkata customs broker and freight forwarder operating since 1950, licensed as an Authorised Economic Operator, handling customs clearance, warehousing and cross border cargo to Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh via Haldia.
A Government of India licensed customs broker and CHA based in Kolkata, offering foreign trade consultancy, customs clearance, cargo and freight solutions and GST advisory to import and export clients.
New Delhi customs broker and freight forwarder offering international freight forwarding, custom brokerage, project cargo handling, air and sea chartering, packaging and warehousing.
Licensed customs broker and freight forwarder headquartered in Ahmedabad with a Mundra office, providing customs clearance, air and sea freight forwarding, bonded trucking and warehousing.
Ahmedabad customs broker operating since 1963 across 47 plus Indian customs locations including Pipavav and Mundra, handling customs clearance plus ocean and air freight for import and export.
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Common questions
Can one customs broker handle clearance for shipments both into and out of India?
Most customs brokers handle both import and export clearance, since the underlying skills, the relationship with the customs authority, and the documentation overlap heavily. Some specialise more in one direction because of the client base they have built up, so it is worth asking directly rather than assuming. If a listing does not make this explicit, a short question before booking confirms which side of the process the provider handles and whether it matches your shipment.
What documents does a customs broker need from me before they can clear a shipment?
At minimum, expect to provide a commercial invoice, a packing list, and the transport document for the movement, along with any licence, permit, or certificate specific to the goods involved. A broker will usually also need your business registration and importer or exporter identification details on file before they can act on your behalf. Provide these as early as possible: gaps or inconsistencies discovered after cargo has already moved are far harder and slower to resolve than the same issue caught in advance.
What happens if a shipment is selected for a customs inspection?
An inspection adds time and, in most cases, a fee for the physical examination, but it is a routine part of clearance rather than a sign something is wrong with the shipment. A competent customs broker already knows how to respond: presenting documentation promptly, liaising with the inspecting officer, and keeping you informed of the delay. Ask a prospective broker how they typically handle inspections and communicate about them, since that pattern says more about their competence than anything else.
Why does a provider without a badge marking it as based in Chennai still appear on this list?
Listings on this page are matched by where a provider actually operates, not only by registered address. Some providers cover Chennai from a nearby base, run scheduled routes through it, or serve it as part of a wider territory in India. The absence of a city badge simply means their presence there is regional rather than a dedicated local office, so they remain a genuine option worth contacting for work in Chennai.
How does this Chennai page relate to the country page for India above it?
The country page for India gathers every provider working anywhere within it, across every category, while this page narrows that same pool down to Chennai specifically. Think of it as a filtered view rather than a separate dataset. If a search here comes up thin, the country page is the right next stop, since it will surface providers whose coverage reaches Chennai without being centred on it.
What should I do if the provider I need is not listed in Chennai yet?
Start with the country page for India, since a provider covering Chennai without a dedicated local presence may be listed there rather than here. If nothing suitable turns up, check neighbouring city pages, as providers often serve overlapping areas. You are also welcome to point us to a provider you know operates in Chennai so it can be reviewed and added for others searching the same route.
How does a provider get listed for Chennai?
Providers are added after their operations in or around Chennai are checked against publicly available information, such as their own website, registration details, or other verifiable records confirming the work they do in India. This keeps the list something buyers can rely on rather than a self-reported directory. A provider already known to serve Chennai that is missing here can be flagged for review and added once that basis is confirmed.
Chennai as one link in a longer shipment chain
A shipment passing through Chennai is rarely handled there in isolation. Customs broking at that point in the journey sits between whatever moved the goods to Chennai and whatever needs to move them onward, and the broker's work only closes out cleanly if those neighbouring stages are arranged to meet it, rather than left to be sorted out afterwards. A clearance completed on time in Chennai still leaves a shipment sitting idle if the onward transport was never booked to match it, or if the inbound leg arrives before the paperwork that clears it does, and either mismatch turns a clean piece of work into a stalled shipment through no fault of the broker's own.
Because of that, engaging a broker for Chennai is usually also a conversation about the stages either side of it: who is arranging transport in and out, who holds the shipment if there is a gap between arrival and clearance, and who is accountable if one leg slips against another. Some providers active in Chennai coordinate directly with those adjacent parties as a matter of routine practice. Others expect the shipper to manage those handoffs themselves and will clear whatever is put in front of them without chasing the pieces that surround it. Neither approach is inherently better, but they place the coordination burden in different hands, and it is worth knowing which one you are dealing with before the first shipment moves rather than discovering it mid-transit.
Before treating a customs broker in Chennai as the whole solution, map out what has to happen immediately before and after that point and confirm who is actually accountable for each handoff. A broker who clears goods perfectly but was never told when the onward leg was booked has still left a gap that someone else has to notice and close, usually later than would have suited anyone involved in the shipment. Naming that accountability explicitly, rather than assuming it is obvious, is what keeps the Chennai stage from becoming the point where responsibility quietly disappears.
Working through the port at Chennai
Working through the port at Chennai changes the shape of the operation. When the seaport sits in the same city as the customs broker, drayage between the terminal and the broker's own base is a short local run rather than a leg that has to be planned and scheduled days ahead. A broker working from Chennai can react to a berthing delay, a shifted cut-off or a last-minute amendment without the added lag of relaying instructions to someone handling the file from another location entirely. Documents that would otherwise be couriered or held up in transit can be walked over, signed, or corrected in person, and a query from the terminal reaches the broker fast enough to be answered before the window closes. That physical closeness also narrows the margin for error at the point that matters most: a broker who is where the port is can hold a booking open a little longer, chase a missing release instruction at short notice, and still make a cut-off that someone coordinating the shipment from further away would already have missed.
None of that is automatic, and it only pays off if the handover between the two sides is agreed rather than assumed. Establish who lodges the entry and by what point relative to the vessel's cut-off, who presents or collects documents at the terminal gate, and how an amendment is handled once cargo has moved into the port's custody. Ask whether the broker's relationship with the terminal or port authority in Chennai is a direct, working one, rather than something routed through a national call centre, since that direct line is usually the real value of a provider based where the port is. Confirm too how demurrage and storage are monitored: with broker and port sharing a city, there is little excuse for either side being slow to flag a container past its free time, and agreeing who watches for that in advance avoids a dispute over whose job it was.
Comparing customs broking providers where several genuinely operate locally
When several providers all name the same city as somewhere they operate, the useful comparison starts after that baseline is confirmed, not before it. Local presence stops being the differentiator once everyone on the list clears it: the harder questions are about what each provider actually does with that presence. Ask about their working relationship with the relevant authorities and terminals in that location specifically, not just a claim of coverage. Ask how they handle the categories of goods relevant to the shipment in question, since a provider present in a place is not automatically fluent in every tariff line or licensing regime that might apply there. And ask about turnaround under pressure: how quickly they respond to a query outside routine hours, how they handle an inspection or a hold, and what happens when something goes wrong rather than only when it goes smoothly.
What genuinely separates providers who are all locally present tends to be track record and specialism rather than location. Look at how long each has actually worked in that place, not just whether they list it, and ask for specifics rather than general assurances: a named contact, a description of how they have handled a hold-up before, or the categories of trade they clear most often. Pricing structure and communication style are also worth comparing directly, since these vary between providers who are otherwise equivalent on paper. The point of having a genuine local choice is being able to weigh providers against each other on substance, so use it: request the same information from each candidate, in the same terms, and judge the answers side by side rather than settling on the first one that responds.
Writing a first enquiry that gets a comparable quote
A first enquiry that produces comparable quotes is one that gives every provider the same facts to price against, rather than leaving each of them to guess at details that would otherwise shape the number differently. State the goods and their classification if known, the volume and frequency expected, whether the movement is import or export, and any permits, certificates or inspections you already know will apply. Vague descriptions get vague quotes back, and vague quotes cannot be compared against each other honestly because each provider has quietly filled the gaps with a different assumption of its own, built from whatever similar job it last happened to handle.
It also helps to say plainly what you want included in the number: is a quote meant to cover only the customs declaration itself, or also any local handling, storage while documents are being processed, and communication with other parties in the chain. Providers scope work differently by default, and a figure that looks lower on the page may simply be narrower in what it actually covers once the job starts. Asking the same explicit question of every provider, rather than leaving scope open to interpretation, is what turns three unrelated numbers into a genuine comparison worth making, instead of three answers to three slightly different questions.
Finally, ask what happens outside the routine case: an inspection is called, a document is queried, a deadline slips against the original plan. A quote that only prices the smooth path leaves the real cost, and the real difference between providers, undisclosed until something actually goes wrong on a live shipment that cannot simply wait for a revised number to be worked out. Providers willing to set out that contingency pricing upfront, rather than treating it as a conversation for later, are usually the ones worth pursuing further.
How trade and export-services activity is spread across India
India's scale means its trade activity is distributed rather than concentrated in any single place, but that distribution is far from even. Commercial and logistics capacity clusters heavily around a set of major centres, generally those with strong port access or a long-established role as inland commercial hubs, while a much larger number of secondary cities carry meaningful but comparatively lighter activity. A provider based in one of the major centres often has the scale to serve a wide region directly, while one in a secondary city more typically covers its immediate region and relies on established links to a larger hub for onward or international movement.
Given the size of the country, corridors matter more than straight-line distance almost anywhere else. Goods moving from an inland production area to a coastal gateway typically follow a small number of long-established road, rail and increasingly dedicated freight corridors, and a city's position on or off one of these corridors has a much bigger effect on transit time and reliability than its size alone would suggest. Two cities a similar distance from a coast can face very different practical journeys depending on which corridor, if any, connects them directly.
For someone comparing Chennai with another Indian city, the important question is less about overall city size and more about which regional hub it feeds into and how direct that connection is. A city close to a major hub or sitting on a strong corridor will generally support more frequent freight forwarding services and a wider range of storage, covering both ambient and temperature-controlled needs, while a city further from these routes may still be well served locally but often depends on a longer chain of handoffs to reach an international gateway. Given the range of markets and regions involved, it is also reasonable for provider specialisation to vary considerably between one city and the next.
City snapshot
Chennai is close to the Koyambedu Wholesale Market Complex, one of Asia's largest perishable-goods wholesale markets, a hub for exporters and packers in the area.