Mumbai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port, India’s busiest container harbor, suspended operations as salvage workers tried to recover hundreds of cargo-boxes shed by a vessel following a collision in the Arabian sea.

It is unclear when the port will re-open, Dock Master B.S. Kumar, said today by phone. The MSC Chitra, operated by Mediterranean Shipping Co., has lost at least 400 boxes and is almost lying on its side, according to pictures broadcast on Times Now. The vessel collided with another ship two days ago.

The closure of Jawaharlal Nehru Port and neighboring Mumbai Port, which together handle about 40 percent of Indian exports, will disrupt shipments of goods including petroleum products, grains and automobiles, according to R. Venkatesh, vice president of the Western India Shippers Association. Companies have already stopped accepting bookings, he said.

It may take “at least a couple of days” for normal operations to resume, said Venkatesh, whose group represents about 130 exporters and freight forwarders. He said there hasn’t been a similar collision in the channels off Mumbai in his 30 years in the industry.

The Chitra collided with the MV Khalijia 3 at 9:35 a.m. on Aug. 7, according to an e-mailed statement from Geneva-based MSC, the world’s second-biggest container shipping line by fleet size. No one was hurt onboard either vessel, the shipping line said. The Khalijia 3 has berthed and is in no danger of sinking, said an official from Gulf Rocks Co., the ship’s Kuwaiti owner, who declined to be identified citing company policy.

The Chitra was deliberately beached following the incident and salvagers from Smit Internationale NV are working to stabilize the ship and its cargo, MSC said. The vessel, built in 1980, has the capacity to carry 2,314 containers, according to data on the Bloomberg terminal.

The vessel was detained for six days in Australia in November 2008 for faults including a defective ship-safety management system and inoperable ballast tank air vents, according to a report on the website of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. (Bloomberg)