The recent downturn heralds a change in the economic power equations. Various think tanks proclaim that the BRIC countries comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China will drive economic growth faster than their developed peers and of them, India could be going big with its investment plans in infrastructure development.

by Radhika Rani G

According to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the top 10 economies by 2030 would be China, the US and India, followed by Japan, Brazil, Russia, Germany, Mexico, France and Britain. In terms of purchasing power parity, India could overtake Japan as the third largest economy by 2012, only two years from now.

On the maritime front too, the BRIC countries would drive the growth this year, especially in break-bulk shipping. Goldman Sachs predicts that China could record 11.4 per cent growth. And India could bank on the power projects worth about US$ 80 billion coming up in the next five years, of which US$ 7 billion is likely to come from Chinese firms.

Several Indian maritime players are glad to have passed the testing and trying times. And for them, though recovery has trailed, resilience has finally paid. But risk, they know, is part of trade.
Vijay Kalantri, Chairman & Managing Director, Balaji Infra Projects Ltd., is geared up to go big on Dighi Port. “We are all entrepreneurs and we all want to work hard and develop the port and reach world-class standards, and also achieve the required vision by 2020,” he tells Maritime Gateway.

Dighi is the all-weather deep draft port coming up on the West Coast in Maharashtra. “At Dighi, we will be 10 berths in the next five years, will start with 3 berths from 14.5 m to 16.5 m and go to 18.5 m draft. We will also have a special economic zone along with the free trade warehousing zone,” Kalantri adds.

The Gujarat Maritime Board, which has been actively pursuing shipping and port reforms in the country, is keen to make the best use of coastal shipping and inland water transportation, especially for passenger ferry service.

Pankaj Kumar, Vice-Chairman and CEO of Gujarat Maritime Board, sees a challenging assignment ahead. “My endeavour,” he says, “will be to give further momentum to the positive and proactive effort of the state government in the ports sector.”

As 50 MOUs have been signed for new projects during the last Vibrant Gujarat summit, Pankaj Kumar says, “We are actively pursuing each and every MOU and we will ensure that they fructify. We are also venturing into shipbuilding sector. Our approach is to develop marine shipbuilding park and we have planned one at Dahej and another in Bhavnagar. With this, we plan to take our capacity to 3 million DWT in the next 3-4 years.”

On the shipping front, the Shipping Corporation of India, the commercial venture of the Government of India, is keen to invest in ships and has gone in for new resales. Capt K S Nair, Director, bulk carriers & tanker div, Shipping Corporation of India, says, “We have 31 ships on order, as against 62 since last year because of softening of prices. We will wait for a price discovery.”  

In the mean time, SCI will explore the market for second-hand vessels “because the number of vessels ordered are not being delivered,” Capt Nair adds.

As the logistics sector gears up to feed the maritime industry, the Central Warehousing Corporation, offering warehousing services through 492 warehouses across the country with a storage capacity of 10.72 million tonnes, is coming up with a big project in Kochi Port. “The CFS being developed in Kochi is primarily to support the Vallarpadam Port,” says B B Pattanaik, Managing Director of Central Warehousing Corporation.

“We have signed an MOU with the FACT (Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Ltd) to develop a CFS there. FACT will provide us the land (25 acres) and we will provide capital and expertise,” Pattanaik informs.

The second project, though small, is a CFS at Kannur Port. “We have already acquired land and started construction. We are adding additional capacity in Kolkata, after acquiring land from Kolkata Port Trust.”
With the gradual growth in 3PL activity, are some established players eyeing this market? “We are a little cautious because there are quite a few players there,” says Shashi Kiran Shetty, CMD, Allcargo Global Logistics Ltd. “It is an industry in the nascent stage and we still don’t see great amount of maturity. So our approach is to look into the niche markets and at customers who are also doing business with us.”

Since Allcargo has a large land bank in Hyderabad, Indore, Goa and Bangalore, Shetty is keen to make use of it to build facilities and eventually inland container depots over a period of time. “They would be kind of logistics parks where we have an ICD, a warehouse, a rail facility and a cold storage if there is an opportunity,” Shetty adds.

The morale of Indian maritime players is intact and the outcome is only a matter of time.