India-made containers, a success story

The global shipping container market size is close to USD 7 billion and is expected to cross USD 12 billion by 2028. However, this time it will also have some contribution from India.

New Delhi, Jan 11: There is a huge market out there for shipping containers as most of the international trade happens on them. However, no previous government paid attention to the requirement or urgency to make the shipping containers in India. It took Narendra Modi to understand the importance and start making them in India to reduce dependency on China.

Nonetheless, the global shipping container market size is close to USD 7 billion and is expected to be more than 12 billion dollars by 2028. However, this time it will also have some contribution from India as the nation has set up a strong manufacturing base to build world class containers that could be used for exports and import activities.

India learnt lesson from acute shortage during Covid

Covid-19 not just hit global trade but also impacted the supply of shipping containers. Since there were not many companies supplying these containers the demand went up significantly that could even be matched. India faced a lot of trouble, precisely because it was heavily dependent upon China. Moreover, since China itself was grappling in the pandemic, it could hardly meet any demands from India.

Nonetheless, India's export and import activities were impacted heavily and the nation had to find a way. In such a circumstance there was no other way than to boost shipping container manufacturing in India. The decision was made to help Indian container manufacturers by giving them advance orders and that could be done only by the Container Corporation of India Limited (CONCOR).

CONCOR is the big size container company in India that operates more than 37000 containers, most of them imported from China. However, this time the company was asked to source its containers from the local manufacturers who were funded under the PLI scheme. The government aims to help the local manufactures with the scheme and this seems to be working pretty well.

Ramping up local production

An inter-ministerial committee that included officials from the ministries of shipping, steel and commerce, CONCOR and NICDC was formed to tackle the issue. From the availability of funds to the availability of fine and sturdy steel for the manufacturing of the shipping container was ensured.

Now, CONCOR will be sourcing 8,000 containers from domestic companies which will in addition to the 10,000 containers that it has ordered from a Bhavnagar-based firm. APPL Containers Private Limited is the company that will be delivering those containers to CONCOR in the coming months.

Last but not the least, the Vartej-based company along with some other local shipping container firms are making Bhavnagar a hub for shipping container manufacturing.