Time to take a call on ship building, maritime activity

The first edition of the Port & Ship International India 2008 conference and exhibition proved to be the most comprehensive setting that brought the industry professionals on a common platform to meet and undertake business in India. The event was jointly organised by Inter Ads Limited and E. J. Krause Associates Inc of the USA.

Sharing his views at the inaugural session, Dr. Stephen Hesselmann, Head, Maritime Department, Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, Government of Germany contended, “India is becoming an economic warehouse. It has many business opportunities as the maritime industry is booming at a very fast pace. The number of containers has increased by 44% from that of the previous year.

Port & Ship International India 2008 is an international exhibition and conference which gave a detailed insight on shipping and ship building, ship technology, maintenance and repairs, ocean engineering, marine offshore technology.

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Why is shipping such a mystery industry?

Unless you work in the shipping industry , or perhaps have a relalive who does, the chances are you will know very little about the shipping industry.

Ships don't tend to come into the centres of big cities any more, being banished to the deeper terminals out in the estuary on account of their great size. With very few exceptions such as Cunard's Queen Elizabeth 2 , ships have also become anonymous.

As this series has pointed out, there are more ships and shipping in the world than there ever has been , the industry growing coincidentally and proportionately with world trade, but it has also become some what depopulated.

A single large containership with fewer than 20 people aboard could be replacing, on account of her size and extraordinary productivity up to twenty general cargo ships of thirty years ago , and the thousand seafarers that manned them.

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Indian port and shipping must gear itself to take on huge growth potential

Speaking at the National Conference on Development of Ports anel Shipping "Transforming Indian Ports into World Class Facilities", Mr. M.M. Saggi, Nautical Advisor to Govt. of India, said, "If Indian Port and Shipping has to become world class, greater private sector partnership in the infrastructure development of ports and shipping is vital. Indian Port and Shipping must gear itself to take on the huge growth potential". He regretted that the shipping and port sector had not attracted even a single Foreign Direct Investment despite the tremendous growth potential of the sector. He expected the capacity of Indian Ports to triple to around 2 billion tonnes in the next five years from the current 6 million tonnes.

Mr. Ramu S. Deora, Chairman, All India Shippers Council, ASCOBIPS, and FICCI Trade Facilitation Forum, was unhappy that despite a high utilization of capacity the country's port and shipping sector continues to face congestion and backlog of cargo impairing smooth handling of international cargo. While the need to boost exports demands high quality of services at competitive costs, the weakening of the global freight markets and the inadequate flow of investments continue to impair the growth of shipping and ports, he added. According to him the logistics costs in India accounted for I 3% of GDP compared to 1 1% in Japan; 10% in Europe and 9% in the US on account of poor logistics infrastructure at ports in the country.

Emphasizing the need to improve trade facilitation and value added services in order to transform Indian Ports into world class facilities, Mr. Rajesh Sampson, Associate Director, Ernst & Young, said "Systems such as PortNet and Trade Net of Singapore as well as developments of distriparksakin to Keppel will go a long way in improving services levels in Indian Ports".

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