Mobile industry calls for bigger air cargo capacity amid export surge

Mobile phone players want Indian airports to ramp up their existing cargo handling capacity to support a projected eight-fold increase in device exports to USD 180 billion by 2030, industry body ICEA said.

India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) Chairman Pankaj Mohindroo told PTI that the turnaround time at customs is a major hurdle for the electronics industry which delays shipments' processing further.

"In China, while the factory to export take-off from the cargo terminal is achieved on Day 1, in India, the export take off happens only by Day 2. This is a glaring chasm especially when seen in the context of the volume of exports which in the case of China is more than 30 times electronics output (USD 959 billion) compared to India (USD 29 billion) in 2023," Mohindroo said.

 

Electronics is already India's largest export in air cargo while it's ranked third overall behind engineering and petrol.

"To keep pace with the expected growth in exports, concerted efforts are needed at the Central and State level. The infrastructure at current airports has already reached saturation levels as they are operating at 80-100 per cent of their capacity which calls for expansion of existing airports and developing new ones," Mohindroo said.

According to ICEA, total electronics exports stood at USD 29.1 billion for the period from financial year 2023-24, out of which mobiles stood at USD 15 billion.

"To achieve the USD 500 billion of electronics production by 2030 requires airport capacities to increase parallelly to handle USD 180 bn of exports, the vast majority on an annual basis which would be 6 times higher than the current exports. By 2030, electronics will not only be India's top 2 exports (at the rate of USD 180-200 billion per year), but also significantly larger in terms of air cargo as compared to any other export from India," Mohindroo said.

At present 55 per cent of total mobile phone exports from India are handled by Delhi, 30 per cent by Madras Airport and 10 per cent at Bangalore airport.

Mohindroo said many airports lack adequate areas for essential cargo operations such as docking, unit load device (ULD) assembly, truck parking, and the smooth loading and unloading of goods.

"Electronics products are highly sensitive to heat, water and other weather conditions. Also, they require to be sent with speed to ensure just-in-time production schedules. Thus, dedicated space that takes care of safety, security and ease of transport is critical for electronics," he said.

Mohindroo said that the custom brokers, who are responsible for verifying packages before shipment, often operate in an unstructured and ad-hoc manner which further adds to delays.

The Indian government is aiming to set up 50 more airports in the next five years to develop the country's airport ecosystem and help boost job creation.

Recently, India's commerce ministry stated that the government is considering measures to provide tax incentives, rationalization of aviation turbine fuel prices, and infrastructure development for handling air cargo.

Mohindroo said that the development of some of the airports including Noida International Airport, and greenfield airports in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are expected to expedite exports.

Apple and Samsung are the top two mobile phone exporters from India.

Majority of Apple's iPhones are made in Tamil Nadu while Samsung has one of the world's largest smartphone factories in Noida.

"An investment of Rs 20,000 crore is being planned to develop the greenfield airport at Parandur, which would annually handle 10 crore people; it will have two runways, terminal buildings, taxiways, an apron, and a cargo terminal. It will also have direct connectivity to the upcoming multimodal logistics park at Mappedu," Mohindroo said.