Taiwanese carrier Wan Hai Lines has stopped accepting bookings for cargo bound for Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries through Pakistani ports, Maritime Gateway reported, saying the suspension took effect immediately, has no end date, and was explained in the carrier's customer advisory by the continued closure of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and ongoing regional tensions.

The ban covers any container discharged in Pakistan for onward transit to those markets, and the advisory explicitly includes transit that shippers or third parties arrange themselves, Maritime Gateway reported. That goes further than other carriers, which have told customers not to plan new Afghan and Central Asia transit bookings but have not ruled out self-arranged onward movement. India Seatrade News also listed the move in its October 21 shipping headlines: 'Wan Hai Halts Afghan and Central Asia Cargo Bookings Through Pakistan.'

Pakistan closed its trade crossings with Afghanistan, including Torkham and Chaman, on 12 October 2025, after deadly border clashes, Maritime Gateway reported. Since then, CMA CGM Pakistan has told customers not to plan new Afghan and Central Asia transit bookings, saying thousands of containers were stranded at terminals, and in January Hapag-Lloyd said transit boxes were being held at ports and border points.

Afghan Transit Trade fell to 11,592 containers worth US$367 million in FY2025-26 — yaani, $367 million is about 36.7 crore dollars — from nearly 89,000 containers before the Taliban returned to power, Maritime Gateway reported, a collapse that shows how completely the Pakistan route has dried up for landlocked Afghanistan.

Trade is moving to other routes at a higher cost. Citing World Bank data, Maritime Gateway reported that 48 per cent of Afghanistan's August imports came through Central Asian routes and 46 per cent through Iran, with Pakistan's share close to zero. A trade body leader in the Afghanistan-Pakistan Joint Chamber of Commerce said a Karachi-to-Afghanistan container that once cost about US$2,000 and took around 10 days can now cost up to US$10,000 — yaani, five times the old price — and take up to two months on detours. For Indian exporters, the report noted Chabahar as the obvious alternative, while adding that the US conditional sanctions waiver for that port ended on 26 April 2026, according to India's Ministry of External Affairs as cited in the report.