Association of Maritime International Commercial Interests & Expertise (AMICIE) has organized a seminar with speakers drawn from leading organizations in the logistics industry at the Taj Club House in Chennai on September 3, 2022. The seminar focused on the big, minor and micro sources of cost leakages and supply chain interruptions were also given wide focus by the speakers who ranged from various transportation modes, including road, rail, air and sea.
The seminar was divided in to three sessions, and the opening session witnessed a warm welcome by the AMICIE secretary and conference convener Ms Vinita Venkatesh.
Capt Suresh Amirapu, President, AMICIE, in his opening remarks presented the overwhelming difficulties prevailing in the Indian logistics sector.
While delivering the inaugural message for the seminar, Mr Kalyana Rama, Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) of Container Corporation of India Ltd. (CONCOR), has said “AIMICIE is organizing this seminar to discuss reducing the logistics cost at this very opportune moment of making India a five trillion-dollar economy.” He further stressed that reducing logistics cost is a very important step forward when the vision of our prime minister to realize five trillion-dollar economy. All these professionals coming together and putting their ideas for how to reduce logistics cost is very commendable job, he said.
He further said, “CONCOR as a leading logistics provider of India plays its part in reducing the logistics cost and providing various quality logistics and supply management solutions for the entire industry in India. We have come out with a lot new ideas in the last ten years and that has helped industry both on domestic and exports and imports segments to a large extent. During Covid-19 pandemic times there was a shortage of containers, which happened because of supply chain disruptions.to mitigate the problems or exporters, CONCOR has come out with a scheme to give fright rebate of 50% irrespective of volume to move empty containers to the hinterland. The scheme has helped exporters immensely. When we introduced this there were roughly 2.5 lakh TEUs moved to hinterland during 9 months of 2021-22, and it helped exporters immensely. And now we have extended this scheme to entire financial year, it is being continuously used by all the exporters and shipping lines and they are getting benefitted.”
He has also said that CONCOR has come out with solution for reducing the multiple handlings with ‘giving containers as the warehouse’ concept, which has been welcomed by the wise industry, and this has reduced the multiple handlings in the entire supply chain. CONCOR is prepared to offer such solutions to exporters in future, he said. The CONCOR CMD also said that another solution from them has reduced the logistics cost for cement industry in the country by introducing normal G P containers instead of specialized containers for the movement. He has also addressed a very important aspect of container manufacturing in India and how CONCOR has taken steps in the last two years to make India self-reliant in container manufacturing by ramping up the production of containers. He hoped that India will become atmanirbhar (self-reliant) in the next five years in container manufacturing sphere. He finally stressed the importance of reducing the logistics cost in the country for quality supply chain systems which can help agriculture sector in India.
Dr (Mr) Surendra Ahirwar, Joint Secretary (Logistics), DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry Government of India, in his video address to the seminar spoke about the importance of international shipping which transports about 90% of the goods worldwide. He said, “India is not on a great wicket when it comes to international trade on shipping as we don’t have India flag shipping lines, and Non-Vessel Owning Common Carriers (NVOCCs) of our own who are operating on international circuits. Therefore, we have a huge dependence on global oligopolies, shipping lines and NVOCCs.” He stressed the need for a mechanism to control the oligopoly trade practices prevailing in the shipping sector in the last two years, as the shipping lines cannot be regulated by the governments. He said the Indian government has been striving to develop the logistics infrastructure in the country by initiating schemes like ‘PM Gati Shakthi’ with innovative and effective GIS platform. He also said that National logistics policy is likely to be announced and the government is ready to introduce a host of other measures like Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) for the enhancement of logistics in the country. He said the government is focusing on how to increase Indian Flagged vessels and Indian operated NVOCCs and their pricing mechanism. Questioning the rationale of the international surveys and consultancy reports on the logistics performance indices in the country, he stressed the importance of having our own performance indices.
In the session one, Mr Sanjiv Garg, Managing Director (PRCL) presentedthe ‘Challenge for the logistics sector in India: Problems and Prospects’. He has elaborated on Indian logistics sector overview, comparison with global economies, and Indian logistics in Road, Rail, Air, Warehouse and Ports.
Mr RSV Ramana Murthy, Export Logistics Manager, ITC Limited, through his presentation spoke about India’s EXIM logistics cost and challenges involved in the Indian logistics sector.
Mr Shantanu Bhadkamkar, Managing Director, ATC Group, spoke on empowering Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) for competitiveness and India’s ranking in the ‘enforcement of contract’ according to World Bank report, and competitive liability insurance.
In the session two of the seminar, Capt. S.R. Patnaik, Chief Executive Officer of International Shipping and Logistics FZE, spoke about Indian dry bulk shipping, challenges in global trade, EXIM-India, coastal trade, inland waterways, and existing challenges.
Mr. J Krishnan, partner, S Natesa Iyer Logistics LLP, presented air cargo logistics challenges and remedies. He further explained the need to encourage cargo consolidation for exports
Mr Bijoy Paulose, Chairman and Managing Director, VS&B Containers Group, in his presentation spoke about the need for containers, reimagining the containers, and fostering a revolution in container usage. He also presented the advantages of box, containerization and India’s position in containerization.
Mr Amit Oza, Maritime Professional, presented Indian commercial shipping perspectives in his presentation.
Capt. K.N.Ramesh, Global Shipping Head, Martrade Group also spoke about shippinglogistics in India.
Mr Suresh Swamy, Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt Ltd spoke about Framework for Ship Leasing in IFSC.
In the session three of the seminar, Mr Parthasarathy Gopalan, Area GM – South & East India, CMA CGM India, spoke about ‘reductio in logistic costs – a shipping line perspectives. He also spoke about how to reduce logistics costs.
Mr Ramkumar Govindarajan, Founder & CEO, WIZ Freight, in his presentationspoke about highly complex cross-border logistics. He also presented the impact of digitization on costs.
Ms Summiit Cheema Sharma, President, WISTA India, presented landscape of logistics costs and the Indian perspective. She also presented competitiveness gap, policy changes, and business case digitization of logistics.
Mr Giridharan, Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Apex Skill Development Centre, presented strengthening and building logistics talent and challenges faced I the skilling ecosystem.
Captain Anuj Chopra, Co-founder & CEO, ESGPLUS, spoke about sustainable logistics.He explainedas the world deglobalizes, the regulatory and social license structure are changing. While introducing the word sustainability he quoted the importance of people, planet and profit (PPP) and innovation. He further said that there should be accountability and transparency, adaptability for logistics and supply chain for future growth, and due diligence, resilience and sustainability all these things have to be measured and managed.
Mr G K Girrish, Account Director, D B Schenker, in his video address spoke on the water of life. The logistics of business. He shared a few pointers like what are the perspectives of India that we need to at and vis-à-vis much broader global perspective and where India stands in that. One way to look logistics and infrastructure in the country is to understand and draw out what kind of perspective we want to have. He compared India and China in terms of logistics cost and both countries have almost similarity in terms of cost of logistics in their GDP terms. He also spoke about whether size of the countries matter in logistics costs.
Mr N Sivasailam, IAS (Retd), Former Special Secretary (Logistics), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt of India, is the honourable Chief Guest for the seminar, who brought out the many lacunae and pitfalls that the Indian logistics trade faces today. Mr Sivasailam however got quickly to the solutions bit, suggesting that the industry create a common digital platform, from where key information and data can be tapped by the subscribing logistics players to advantage.
Mr Umesh Grover, Secretary General, Container Freight Stations Association of India (CFSAI), and Mr G Raghu Sankar, Executive Director of International Clearing & Shipping Agency (India) and Dr (Capt) Suresh Bhardwaj, Resident Director & Principal MASSA Maritime Academy, Chennai also addressedthe seminar alsoacted as panel committee members.
To help keep the attendees stay charged through the day, a quiz contest and a lucky draw followed each of the sessions.
Founder & Past President, Capt S Pullat had the last word in thanking the speakers, the organizing committee, the convener, the present office bearers, and the various team members. He appreciated all the sponsors and media partner Maritime Gateway for having supported the event.
