Bhubaneswar: ASSOCHAM said Odisha has all potentials to become the gateway to ASEAN. Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) secretary general DS Rawat said this while unveiling a study “Indian ports sector: Challenges of scale and efficient operations,” at a Press conference here on Tuesday.
ASSOCHAM chief advisor Arvind Kumar said Odisha has all the potentials to become the gateway to the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). The Dhamra Port can be developed into a major non-major port like the Adanis’ port in Mundra in Gujarat.
The ASSOCHAM study pointed out that India’s total containerised cargo capacity of 8.75 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) at all its 12 major ports, a key indicator of a country’s integration with global supply chain for value-added manufactured goods, is less than a quarter of containerised goods handled at China’s single port of Shanghai, making it imperative for us to do a fast catching up.
Though India’s ports have met in rapidly expanding traffic, handling more than a billion tonne of cargo in 2016-17 and the capacity is expected to increase to 2.5 billion tonnes by 2025, the freight mainly comprises POL (petrol, oil, and lubricant), coal, iron ore and other commodities.
It is only recently that freight in containers, which are easy to load, unload and can be carried to the hinterland through multi-modal transport, is catching up in India. Besides, it is the containerised traffic which reflects the level of manufacturing and value addition a country has achieved for itself in the global market.
“Total containerised cargo volume for the whole of India’s major ports is about 8.5 million TEUs, which is less than a quarter of volume handled by the largest container port in China, Shanghai (36.5 million TEUs). China has four ports which handle more than 20 million TEUs, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Ningbo and Zhoushan and Hong Kong China.”
Even on the parameter of overall cargo, both with or without containerization, India has a fragmented capacity at different ports. In China, there are six cargo ports which can handle over 500 million tonnes cargo per annum and it has another eight ports which handle cargo more than 100 million tonnes up to 500 million tonnes.
Commenting on the infrastructure in India, Rawat said, “The port scaling in China is not only ahead of us, but it over-awes even the major countries. Of the world’s top 20 ports, 14 are in China. No Indian port figures in the world’s top 20.”
“In contrast, India has just two ports which handle beyond 100 MT Kandla and Mundra. Fragmentation of port capacity in India is demonstrated by the fact that India’s 12 major ports handle cargo far less than Shanghai port. Large productivity gains can be achieved by improving existing ports at a much lower marginal cost,” the study noted.
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