Plans to expand container depots, take up stakes in ports.
In order to take on competition from private operators, state-owned Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) is adopting a strategy that includes setting up dedicated air freight stations, expanding the network of inland container depots (ICDs), taking up stakes in ports, exploring options of starting coastal shipping services with shipping lines and offering cold chain storage services.
The 15-odd private container service operators such as the Adani Group, APL, Dubai Ports World, Reliance and Arshiya International have cornered around 15 per cent share of the containerised cargo transport market in the country since they started operations in February 2006. Before this, Concor had monopoly.
Now, to increase penetration in the hinterland, CONCOR has invested over Rs 100 crore to add four more terminals to its existing chain of 59 ICDs. While the ones at Durgapur and Sarai Madhopur (Varanasi) have been commissioned recently, Sikandrabad and Khodiyar facilities are under construction.
CONCOR has also entered into an agreement with a consortium led by Dubai Ports World to operate a container terminal that is coming up at the Vallarpadam port near Cochin. The facility is expected to be commissioned in April 2010. Besides, CONCOR has expressed interest in operating the 4th terminal at the Jawaharlal Nehru port. However, the project is stalled due to legal problems.
The corporation is also looking at setting up dedicated air freight stations at seven ICDs, including at Pitampur and Ahmedabad, so that cargo can be directly transported through bonded trucks to airlines. It is also seeking Customs clearance to operate a container freight station (CFS) in a joint venture with HAL at the new airport in Bangalore.
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A senior CONCOR official said, “Unlike private sector players, we are trying to co-ordinate rather than compete with alternative modes of transport to provide all-round logistics solutions. We want to emerge as a third-party logistics player with a range of services. Provision of integrated services is and will be our core strength.”
CONCOR, he said, was considering tie-ups with shipping lines to start coastal shipping services on certain routes. The organisation has tinkered with the concept twice before but has not been able to get favourable rates. After the success of Fresh and Healthy Enterprises (the corporation’s wholly-owned subsidiary), which is into apple trade and has 78 cold chambers with storage capacity of 12,000 tonnes at Sonepat, CONCOR is exploring the possibility of establishing cold storage chains at other places in the country.
Senior CONCOR officials say competition from the private sector has not hit business. A highly placed official at the corporation said, “The volume of cargo we transported in the first two years of operation of private sector service providers has shown a significant increase over the previous years. The container cargo transport market in India is growing and we are considering measures to increase our share.”
Container traffic in India has been growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 15 per cent since 1991. The trend is expected to continue in the future once the effects of the global slowdown neutralise. The official added, “CONCOR is looking at expanding its network and to diversify so as to ensure optimal utilisation of existing resources.”