Prime Minister Narendra Modi's goal of making India the factory of the world risks from the country's inability to attract large container ships due to inadequate port infrastructure.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's goal of making India the factory of the world risks from the country's inability to attract large container ships due to inadequate port infrastructure.
Most ports along India's coast are not deep enough to handle ships such as the world's largest boxship Ever Alot with a capacity of over 400 meters long and 24,000 twenty foot equivalent units. Neighboring Sri Lanka as well as Malaysia have visited Ever Alot in recent months, which could rival the Empire State Building in height.
India's largest state-run container handling facility, the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, lacks the 17-metre draft required to navigate such vessels. One facility that has said it can handle the behemoth - Mundra Port, run by billionaire Gautam Adani's group - has so far been abandoned. The 17,292-TEU APL Raffles is the largest vessel to berth in January 2022 with 13,159 TEUs on board.
"Ultra-large vessels offer economies of scale," said Shailesh Garg, a director at Drewry Maritime Advisors. There is also a need to improve road and rail connectivity from ports to warehouses, factories and shops, he added.
Poor shipping connectivity hinders India's integration into the global value chain, according to a Reserve Bank of India report in 2022. The country scored 34% in the GVC Participation Index, compared to 45.9% for the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. RBI said. According to a separate report, the Vietnam gauge was above 50%.
Mundra Port hosted APL raffles three years after Vietnam welcomed a ship of the same class, showing how Asia's third largest economy lags behind in competition for a bigger share of trade as business moves away from China. go away. Mundra is India's highest-ranked port in terms of performance, ranking 48th in an index compiled by the World Bank Group and S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Weak infrastructure is undermining Modi's goal of lifting GDP from 14% to 25% and increasing the country's slice of global goods exports to 3% by 2027 and 10% by 2047, up from 2.1% now. is above %.
Responding to queries, AP Moller-Maersk A/S said, "The existing port and terminal infrastructure in India limits the possibility of harnessing the full potential of ultra large vessels." Some factors "include draft at ports, cranes at terminals used to load and unload cargo, port throughput capacity."
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