In a bid to manufacture more of its own shipping containers, the Indian government is promoting its ‘Make in India’ campaign, which is anticipated to allow the country to rely less on imported containers for international business, according to The Economic Times.
The Indian government is also looking to hire a consultant who will provide technological expertise on specialised container production, and also as a way to examine India’s capacity for taking on container manufacturing.
This initiative follows the Indian government’s plan to turn each of its 12 major ports into a smart city at a total anticipated cost of around US$8 billion.
Vishwas Udgirkar, Senior Director of Deloitte India, said: “In the short term there may be a cost disadvantage but in the long term this will pay off as trade is getting more containerised.”
Hemant Bhattbhatt, CEO of HMSA consultancy services LLP, said: “It is good that we want to move as much manufacturing to India as we can but we should examine the underlying economics of doing so. Volumes for containers need to catch up for anyone to set up a facility.”
Container trade in India is said to be growing at an exponential rate of around 12% year-on-year and the container initiative is expected to support Indian trade in terms of cargo safety and also to sustain the international market.
JNPT, India’s largest port, has a total capacity of four million TEU and handles around 4.1 million TEU annually.
