Despite a sluggish trend in automotive exports, the segment offers huge growth opportunity in future. Being a cost competitive manufacturing base, India is an attractive destination for foreign automobile companies and most of them are looking at ramping up production facilities. But, with most ports in India lacking dedicated Ro-Ro terminals and facing connectivity and congestion issues, the country has to look at addressing issues related to infrastructure and logistics to take advantage of the projected growth in exports.

Energy security issues and high spend in exploration and production by private and government-owned companies have made India an attractive market for offshore shipping service providers. If the government is able to support this surge in demand with policy guidelines, the segment will grow further.

With the changing dynamics of global trade and the development of P3 as well as the G6 and now the CKYHE alliances, new maritime hubs are likely to emerge in Asian region. Apart from the size of trade, superior infrastructure, ability to handle large ships and competitive tariffs will be the key success factors of any hub.

As the year 2013 draws to an end and the year 2014 begins, maritime industry is looking forward to a New Year that can bring in some positive changes. The mood is optimistic as the industry feels the greenshoots of developments in the previous year may lead to ?fruitful? days ahead.