Logistics Cost – The Black Hole In Containerised Trade

The seventh edition of Indian Container Market Annual Report delves deeper into the logistics cost which has been a major stumbling block in container trade. It maps the cargo centers distributed across the country, tracks the partners in international trade and is a ready reckoner for the latest data on Indian container terminal infrastructure, efficiency, rankings and performance.

In 2018, India has become the world’s fifth largest economy by leaving France & the UK behind in World Bank ranking. Although China registered single digit growth in container throughput in last three years, India’s container throughput grew by 11.4% in 2018. All Indian ports registered positive growth during the year except one or two unfortunate ones. Overall, India’s container traffic in last four years has grown significantly with a CAGR of close to 12%.

Market Segmentation - 2019

Major Vs Non-major ports Major ports have continuously lost a significant share of container traffic to non-major ports in last decade. The market share of non-major ports has increased by more than five times in last 14 years (since 2005). The market share of major ports declined from 92% in 2005 to 58% in 2018. Rapid expansion of private terminal operators in the non-major ports diverted significant chunk of cargo. The market share of non-major ports collectively rose to a whopping 42% in 2018 from a paltry 8% in 2005. Krishnapatnam and Katupalli on the east coast of India have amassed significant volume in last four/five years and they are adding to the growth story of non-major ports which were driven previously by Mundra and Pipavav. The largest Indian port JNPT registered a healthy close to 8% growth in 2018 which is the highest y-o-y growth in last four years. Nevertheless, its share has been reduced to almost half in last 15 year. Mundra is rapidly approaching to become the largest shareholder of total container traffic and handled 11% more boxes in 2018 over the previous year. Mundra’s share was just 3% less than the largest port JNPT in total container traffic.

East coast ports Vs west coast ports