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In the entire journey of a commodity from production to consumption, logistics has been an overhead on which manufacturers had limited control so far, but not any longer! Mega logistics parks have the potential to change the way India moves goods.
With intermediaries being eliminated or marginalized due to streamlining of supply chain, homeland goods movement in particular is getting more cost efficient. Among many new interventions in goods movement that is paving way for entry of institutionalized operators, the latest one is Logistics Park. Logistics industry was growing but in an inorganic fashion, and with growth in consumption, goods movement also intensified leading to an unorganized industry of storage and distribution.
However, government felt the need to streamline the sector else it could reach a point where it would have been difficult to control. There are many such examples of places across India where storage and distribution centers flourished but find it difficult to sustain in the long run. Bhiwandi is one such location, ideally located very close to a mega consumption centre Mumbai but still the real estate rental rates are much lower as compared to the main land. Once Bhiwandi was known for its textile mills but now many of the mills have closed and have given way to a flourishing warehousing industry. The Mumbai suburb is the biggest single location warehousing market in India with roughly 70-80 million sqft of conventional warehousing space on offer. However, an unplanned set up of warehouses has choked the movement of goods though not completely halted. In a bid to overcome such situations, government among many other logistics efficiency initiatives, also earmarked specific locations for a more systematic growth of the industry and also to attract institutional investment but the core intension is to bring down logistics cost. Rahul S Dogar, Director – Strategy & Business Development, Holisol Logistics explains, “Logistics parks would essentially create a complete support ecosystem for the industry players within the vicinity thus making it much more efficient and cost effective for the business to operate. The other drivers of investment being the clear emergence of manufacturing clusters in some parts of the country which would need logistics facilities which can service multiple needs and develop a complete ecosystem to support a particular industry segment.”
In the first phase 15 locations have been identified spread across the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Punjab. On the function of these parks, Chander Agarwal, Managing Director, TCIEXPRESS said, “The idea behind multi-modal logistics park is to provide specialized storage solutions, mechanized material handling and enable seamless intermodal transfer of good and service. These parks are expected to serve four key functions: freight aggregation and distribution, multimodal freight movement, storage and warehousing/sorting centers, and value-added services. These facilities are expected to provide value added services such as customs clearance, provisions for late-stage processing activities such as sorting/ grading and cold chain, aggregation / disaggregation, etc. In addition, availability of a consolidated warehousing/ sorting centre zone will enable organizations to reduce their average inventory holding and the associated costs.”
What drives investment!
Port and shipping industry in India was one of the first sectors to open for 100 per cent FDI, but the sector had rather received a lack luster interest from investors, in contrary, land side of supply chain such as logistics, storage and distribution has been a hot pick among investors. The investment is led by institutional investors, and pension and sovereign funds from the west like the US, Canada and even from countries from Asia like Japan where interest rates has remained grounded for long time. N Shridhar, Group Director and Chief of Investment & Strategy, Hiranandani Group on the factors that is driving investment in Logistics Parks in India, said, “The implementation of structural reforms such as GST coupled with the planned transport infrastructure, 100 per cent FDI in warehousing, Food storage facilities, among others has the potential to be the next drivers of growth for the industrial and warehousing sector. We are on the cusp of a growth phase for this sector and expect that over time the yields from this sector will be comparable to grade “A” commercial office assets. The stickiness of the industrial and warehousing asset class and the favorable government policy initiatives to reduce logistics cost will boost further investment in this sector over the next 3 to 5 years.”
Benefits for user
Logistics Parks as part of the Logistics Efficiency Enhancement Programme (LEEP) is certainly a move in the positive direction with farfetched impact. Elaborating the benefits for users, Girish Narayan, Executive Committee Member, Bangalore Customs House Agents Association said, “Shippers were facing issues related to storage and loading space. Now with Logistics Parks the shippers would be able to plan out their inventories without any hindrance. Shippers will be able to meet the requirements of demand and supply on time.” He further lists down some updates that are needed at existing facilities like cargo security with surveillance systems, well maintained warehouses with amenities, modernized equipments to handle cargo and for packing and repacking of goods, good fleet of transport systems for time bound delivery and inside roads capable to handle heavy vehicles leading to the parks. Logistics Parks can be a huge success if they are located in the industrial belts, and near airports, ports and ICDs, opines Girish. Geographical restructuring of logistics parks will be more beneficial to the industries and service providers.
These projects are not only beneficial for shippers, but also pave way for other industries like equipment suppliers, construction companies, consultants, and trucking companies, etc. Harpreet Singh Malhotra, Chairman & Managing Director, Tiger Logistics (India) Limited said, “The increasing influx of international logistics service providers are prompting third party logistics and domestic players to expand their footprint and focus on transportation service, warehousing and freight forwarding. It will also open up opportunities for partnerships, and domestic logistics companies will have access to the modern technologies introduced by global service providers.” Moreover, with better forecast of demand and distribution industries can evaluate working towards ZERO inventory holding model. This will help the customers to order back-to-back with a purchase order and deliver end product directly to the customer. This working model can effectively open up new trading opportunities. Additionally, all the vendors and suppliers would look to collaborate to take maximum benefit from the parks and be near to the production units to fulfill ‘just-in-time’ delivery commitments. Further, these facilities would help shippers to get statutory clearances at one place.
Hotspots for new facilities
Currently, Grade B and C warehouses are on offer at extremely low price points as little as `5-6 per sqft, hence it is not feasible for organized operators to compete in tier-II and tier-III cities unless they get a major anchor client. However, in places like Mumbai and Delhi which has large consumer base, the institutional operators have an edge in terms of offering bigger size warehouses with better ambience for storage. “The largest of these Logistics Parks would be set up in Haryana, Telangana, Nagpur, Chennai, Surat, Vijaywada and Bengaluru. These parks are expected to facilitate seamless freight movement across states with an emphasis on multi modal freight transportation. Allcargo Logistics is on track with developing a logistics park in Jhajjar (Haryana) and is exploring other states like Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh etc.,” said Prakash Tulsiani, COO & Executive Director, Operations, Allcargo Logistics. Moreover, these facilities also allow companies to focus on their core business and outsource logistics requirements to experts, adds Tulsiani.
The proximity of a logistics park to a port and a major consumption hub is being looked as good potential for the future. In the next few years the places which will be under the scanner as far as ideal locations would be Ponneri Industrial Node in Tamil Nadu, and other locations identified by the government are Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Bharuch, Hyderabad, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Gurdaspur, Jaipur, Kandla, Bangalore, Pune, Vijayawada, Cochin, Chennai and Nagpur. These locations have good prospects based on their past record and near future forecast of being places with the highest freight movement.
Policy
In the past many noble policy initiatives have been mooted by various governments to bring down logistics cost, however those policies lose steam with change of government. India being part of WTO signatory member is compelled to streamline supply chain process inline with WTO norms, including Customs reforms. Moreover, there is also pressure on the government to keep a tab on inflation. Multinational logistics companies have expressed confidence in the current policy regime leading to steady inflow of foreign investments. Rachid Fergati, Managing Director Indian Sub-Continent, UPS speaking on the market conditions in India said, “An integrated approach to create an infrastructure grid will be key in creating efficient transportation and logistics systems to boost competitiveness of Indian businesses. The Indian Government has outlined a clear direction towards development and growth to realize India’s future potential. Government has implemented an integrated approach to achieve these goals, which directly impacts local businesses and international trade with initiatives such as Ease of Doing Business, Smart Cities, GST, Make in India to name a few.” Indian SMEs rely heavily on imports and exports for their business growth. In India, UPS caters to the B2B segment for imports and the B2C & B2B segments for exports. “We have seen that businesses in these sectors don’t just need a supply chain, they need a partner to create supply chain efficiencies. It is not just about geographic reach but also about timely delivery, creating efficiencies by coupling it with safety and reliability and making the business process cost effective,” explains Fergati.
Another sore area for the industry is lack of comprehensive ‘logistics policy’, and the sector though a major contributor to the GDP and employment generation, but has lately got industry status. Sharing concerns for the sector, Chander Agarwal, Managing Director, TCIEXPRESS said, “A conducive policy at the moment, is missing for the logistics industry. Though various state governments are taking measures to develop logistics policy. In the meantime, measures like PPP model and GST by the government have played a significant role in providing credit financing environment for a sustainable growth of logistics parks.”
Future outlook
If we take the example of few other major Asian markets like China, Singapore and Japan, logistics parks have been a key determinant in making supply chain efficient in those countries. However, each market evolves differently and it is very difficult to accurately predict how the Indian logistic scene will move in the long-term. Freeholding of land in India has lead to a spurt in development of smaller warehouses by developers with little or no expertise. Hence, large base of warehouses in India are not upto the global bench mark. In China, land is owned by the government and is released on drip basis to keep a tab on over supply as compared to demand, and it is allocated to operators with proven track record or a well thought out plan for the future. Thus it is not wise to compare India with China or any other market. In a major push to developing an integrated logistics framework in the country, the government has granted infrastructure status to the logistics sector (including industrial parks), enabling the industry to access cheaper finances. With institutional investment, the sector will certainly move towards being a more organized sector and the ones with better quality offering will certainly be able to call the shots.
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