A committee of stakeholders has been appointed by the Indian government to oversee the development of a container manufacturing hub at Bhavnagar in Gujarat.
The decision has been fast-tracked after India’s containerised trade was hit last year with the pandemic-induced global container shortages negatively affecting the Indian economy.
[s2If is_user_logged_in()]A pilot project is expected to conclude by end of April 2021, with the government keen to establish the country’s biggest container manufacturing centre in Bhavnagar, which is close to Alang shipbreaking yard.
Speaking to Container News, Haresh Parmar – Secretary of the Ship Recycling Industries Association, said, “Bhavnagar holds strategic importance since it accommodates various ancillary industries like mini steel makers, 100 ship-recycling, 100 re-rolling mills and 80 furnace makers. The stakeholders committee involves at least 10 local industrialists from Bhavnagar, a professor from IIT Delhi who is looking after the design of the container and is also working on the design of collapsible containers which is a fairly new concept in India.”
Kirit Soni – President of Saurashtra Chamber of Commerce & Industry who visited the region with Union Shipping Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on 3 April to check the feasibility of the site.
“The committee is working at national and local level. The local industrialists are ready to manufacture a small number of containers once the design and specifications are approved in the pilot project. Government has also involved the Indian Register of Shipping (IRS) for the required certification process once Professor Chawla’s design is approved”, said Soni.
Currently, India’s annual demand for containers stands at 350,000 and is dependent mainly on China which dominates the container manufacturing business. The Indian government is looking at a US$133.12 million investment from private players and the initiative is expected to generate 100,000 jobs.
Concor has already placed an order of 1,000 containers each with BHEL and Braithwaite & Co.
While the pilot project will test whether Bhavnagar has the required technical ability to manufacture containers. Soni spelt out the two big challenges, “Two-three components required in manufacturing containers have never been made in India like corner castings. Secondly, once the certification process is over, testing the containers would be a problem as we don’t have any set-up for that. However, it is being said that the raw material components are replaceable.”
Global steelmaker ArcelorMittal has agreed to meet demand for customised corten steel required in container manufacturing.
“DG Shipping has authorised the IRS to verify our procedures /form /checklist, training and qualification scheme for surveyors undertaking design review, inspection and testing of containers all of which have been prepared in accordance with the International Convention for Safe Ccontainers (CSC 1972) for compliance,” said IRS Joint MD Vijay Arora.
Sheuly Ghosh
India Correspondent
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