India’s CONCOR (Container Corporation of India) is in talks with major shipping lines -including the likes of global major Maersk – to offer end-to-end solutions including their flagship first mile – last mile (FM – LM) services, officials said.
The CPSE, under the Ministry of Railways, is also awaiting delivery of tank containers from wagon-maker Braithwaite & Co. The ramp up of tank containers is seen as an attempt by CONCOR to shore up revenues from new segments in the domestic market, ike cement.
Review of cap-ex Budget will soon be taken up depending on infrastructure requirements. In FY25, the guidance was ₹610 crore and by H1 around ₹277 crore of cap-ex has been through. The CPSE procured 5130 new containers in H1FY25 thereby taking its total number to 49,516.
According to Sanjay Swarup, Chairman and Managing Director, CONCOR, meetings have been held with shipping lines in Mumbai; and the CPSE offered its warehousing services, first mile and last mile facilities and also apprised shipping lines of the volume-based incentives that are offered. These services, he said, will be offered “as a package”.
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“.....So all these things, they are part of the agreement that we are having with shipping lines,” he said during a recent investor call.
“I visited the headquarters of Maersk, which is the second biggest line in Copenhagen, Denmark. And they are quite excited when I told them about the green logistics, ESG norms being followed...and total business solutions. So they have had internal discussions and all of them are coming forward to sign these agreements with us...” Swarup further added.
Some of the other business houses who had previously been named by the CMD as prospective candidates included Tata, Vedanta, Reliance and Jindal. It has long term agreements with the Jindal Group for EXIM trade only.
Double Stack Container Services
According to Swarup, Braithwaite Corporation will look to supply bulk cement and tank containers December onwards. Discussions are already underway with cement companies. “We are in touch with leading cement companies.... and we hope to garner very good business in domestic in the coming months,” he said.
Rail services between Kandla port and ICDs (inland container depots) of North India have already begun; and, CONCOR will soon start double stack container train services from North India locations to Varnama (near Baroda), a part of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC).
The terminal at Varnama will have connectivity with both the Indian Railways network and the DFC with the latter part under – construction at present. “We will run double stack train from Dadri and Kathuwas upto Varnama. And from there we break it to two single stack trains. And they will go on Indian Railways route upto JNPT for the last 400 kms. And the reverse will happen for imports,” Swarup said during the call.
The WDFC completion is now pushed back to December 2025 with 100 km -odd remaining.