The Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders has entered into container manufacturing business after receiving an order from the Container Corporation of India Ltd (CONCOR) for 2,500 cargo-carrying steel boxes.
These containers are likely to cost between Rs 3.5 and Rs 4 lakhs each. This puts the whole deal value at around Rs 100 crore.
“We have given manufacturing orders to Mazagon Dock for 2,500 containers. The order includes 1,500 containers of 10 feet high and 1,000 containers of 12 feet high,” revealed CONCOR CEO and MD, V Kalyana Rama.
CONCOR is introducing the 12 feet containers for the first time in India and they are considered to be more useful than dwarf containers. Indian exporters were hit by the shortage of containers amidst the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Since then, there have been consistent calls to enhance the local production of the same. Mazagon Dock is now the third state-owned firm to enter container manufacturing after Braithwaite Co & Ltd and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. CONCOR has already sanctioned orders for 6,000 containers that it will buy from Indian firms.
India will be needing close to 60,000 new containers between now and 2026. It will require an addition of 10,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) annually. China makes about 90 per cent of the global shipping containers but India has been looking to enter the segment under the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative. The Union Railways Ministry even permitted the introduction of 12 feet high container of 20 feet length for cargo transportation on its network in November 2021. Their haulage charges have been made at par with the prevalent cost for different weight slabs on a TEU basis.
