How has been the business for freight forwarders, last year and through this year?
Resilient Logistics has been the talk of logistics sector with required emphasis by the Government understanding its importance for economic growth building strong support system to logistics services.
With disruption, logistics sector has always been benefited and witnessed growth and hence the freight forwarders business has always been good, the only change was the business models with investment in IT adaptation.
Trends and factors that will drive the shipping and logistics sector in the months to come?
The Government initiatives in infrastructure development with systematic plan of PM Gati Shakti will play important role.
The developments from Coastal/ Ports to last mile multimodal connectivity as well as infrastructure like Multimodal logistics parks and vice versa will boost the efficiency to reduce cost and dwell time which will benefit logistics industry and Manufacturing industry.
A key initiative towards transformation in maritime and logistics industry, the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan has ensured efficient logistics and cost reduction in first and last mile connectivity
The performance of traffic handled by ports with increase by 8.78 from April to Nov 22 in current financial year 22-23 as compared to the same period last year from 466.19 million tonnes to 507.12 million tonnes and container traffic volumes with an increase of 7.59% speak for the progress.
567 projects identified under Sagarmala Programme for holistic development of Coastal Districts will support the international EXIM trade
The initiative of ULIP with Digitization at major ports integration will play major role with seamless data flow. The migration of PCS 1x to NLP M on 5th Dec 22, its integration with ICEGATE via SFTP for existing messages and further for SCMTR messages and would undergo API integration with all stakeholders will further enhance the digitalization with accuracy avoiding duplicating DATAs. Further the adaptation of eBL will bring transparency, speed and authentication in complete supply chain process from Shipper to Carrier to Banking and Consignee to have real time tracking of documents
Though many major countries are facing economic volatility for India, as the domestic consumption is very strong, manufacturing industry would sustain the slide in international trade.
Further the shift of China market due to uncertainty of lockdown will benefit India Manufacturers to boost their products in International market. This will be at advantage and leverage logistics in India
The Governments initiatives of “Make in India” under Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal trade has built confidence in trade to support Manufacturing industry and create entrepreneurs and employments
The current geo-political scenario and its impact on the global supply chains?
The war between Russian and Ukraine has resulted in new developments in the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), especially based on Chabahar Port in Iran. India and Iran agreed continued cooperation for the development of the Shahid Behesti terminal of the Chabahar port. INSTC has been facilitating a higher volume of trade between India and Russia via Iran over the last several months amid the West’s sanctions on Moscow following the Ukraine war.
It is pertinent to mention that the 7,200-km-long network of highways, sea and rail routes under INSTC offers the shortest connectivity route between Russia and India. It also reduces the carriage cost between the two nations by about 30%. At present, most of the commodities that are transported through Iran along this route are shipments between Russia and India.
Experts say a rare confluence of geopolitical and economic incentives is turning the route into a potentially vital economic escape pathway for Moscow as tough Western sanctions deny the Kremlin access to European markets.
By 2030, the INSTC corridor is expected to have the capacity to transport up to nearly 25 million tonnes of freight each year — 75 percent of the total container traffic between Eurasia, South Asia and the Gulf.
The Geo Political effect may also lead to alternate currency negotiation to USD in bilateral trade payments. Plans already underway in Russia and China to promote their currencies for international payments including through the use of block chain technologies increased after invasion of Ukraine. The de-dollararisation effect will have impact on trade, Cutting down Russia from Global Financial messaging system “SWIFT” have impacted to look for alternate currencies.
How do you see the role of a freight forwarder evolve in the days to come? What type of skills will be more in demand for a Customs broker?
Role of Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders is as important as other logistics service providers in the entire logistics and supply chain system. It has already recognized by the government and Customs authority that Customs Brokers are playing the crucial role by acting as a bridge between Customs and Exim Trade Industry. Customs Brokers/Freight Forwarders are working as an extended arm of Customs, Custodians and Carriers to make the EXIM trade people aware of the compliances to facilitate the trade. Since cargo has to be cleared and transported with human touch with skill/proficiency the role of CBs/FFs with domain knowledge supported by contemporary technology would be huge in the days to come, which would be completely faceless transaction or through digital transaction based on domain knowledge.
As the Apex Body of the Freight Forwarders/Customs Brokers in India, we have been able to increase our outreach with various ministries i.e Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Ports Shipping & Waterways, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Ministry of MSME and our role is being acknowledge for contributing to every aspect to fulfill the government’s vision in developing the end to end Logistics Sector.
With ground zero experience gathered during pandemic and lockdown period in 2022 our focus was to up skill the domain knowledge with effective utilization of emerging technologies through our training arm Indian Institute of Freight Forwarders (IIFF). At the same time, FFFAI has strengthened its Women and Youth Wings to woo women and young entrepreneurs to this highly potential and vibrant sector. Our serious efforts have been recognized by the international logistics fraternity and FFFAI nominated candidate Shri Avishkar Srivastava, PDP Group has been the winner of FIATA YLP Award for the Asia Pacific region. It would have far reaching impact on young professionals to this sunrise sector as a lucrative one, which hitherto has been a sector to be engaged by compulsion and not by choice as a viable career option.
And, finally after a gap of 6 long years we could hold the much awaited mega event, i.e. FFFAI Convention physically (the first large gathering of logistics stakeholders post Covid pandemic) from August 12 to 14 in Chennai. The event was full of new ideas and hope owing to serious discussions and several interactive sessions held between domain experts and record number (more than 650) of participants from across India and many other countries. Remarkably, the FFFAI Convention was addressed by three very dynamic Ministers and bureaucrats of the Government of India.
Significantly, in 2022 FFFAI has announced STC, NOC from Members for new business and code of conduct implementation which will protect and safeguard our members from exploitation of recovery to bring transparency and credibility to logistics Industry.
Also, in this year to empower Customs Brokers and logistics service providers; FFFAI has enrolled with FIATA for issuing own Bill of Lading which members can take benefit of diversifying their business into freight forwarding
FFFAI Training and Skill development institute IIFF for the first time has launched Four batches in a year and opened up Center of Excellence to enhance knowledge & skill we which shows the commitment towards fraternity.
Our continuous dialogue and representations for trade facilitations and streamlining logistics operations resulted into milestone decisions of the Government specifically on the following initiatives/launches: PM Gati Shakti, National Logistics Policy, Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP), Multimodal Logistics Parks (MMLP), ICEGATE Updation, etc.
With proper implementation of the above initiatives, we expect there would be a sea change in the manufacturing, export/import and end-to-end logistics service sector in the days to come.
Government of India acknowledge our contribution and were invited by Ministry of Finance during the celebration of 60 years of Customs Act 1962 event for presentation on way forward.
It’s proud moment that the world is looking at us as leadership in Logistics and FFFAI was invited by (International Federation of Customs Brokers Associations) IFCBA on which we hold the Managing Director position for presentation on Customs Trade Facilitation measures best practices which was also addressed by Mr. Kunio Mikuriya , Gen Sec, World Customs Organisation (WCO).
