It is reported that Mr Kim Fejfer CEO of APM Terminals met Mr GK Vasan union shipping minister of India and other government officials to discuss existing and new terminal and port development projects in one of the world’s fastest growing economies.
Mr Fejfer is in India on a three day visit to review the progress at APM Terminals facilities, at Gateway Terminals India located at Jawaharlal Nehru Port and Port Pipavav in Gujarat.
Mr Fejfer said that "As one of the most robust and important emerging economies, India is certainly an area of great interest in the shipping industry, and a nation in which we see tremendous potential for growth in the port industry.”
He said that "India’s combined container throughput was approximately 7 million TEUs in 2009, or roughly equivalent to the annual volume of the Port of Hamburg, and so we can see that India is very underrepresented considering the size of its economy and population adding that this is where we can help make a difference.”
The economy has been forecast to grow by 8.8% in 2010, and 8.4% in 2011 by the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook April 2010 report. In the first quarter of 2010, container volumes at South Asian ports surged by 25.6%, faster than the 15% growth in container traffic recorded worldwide.
GTI ended fiscal 2009-10 with container volumes up by 20% over 2008-09 at 1.75 million TEUs, even though the India market grew by 8%.
Port Pipavav, located approximately 10 hours steaming time from Nhava Sheva, registered a 64% growth in volumes in calendar 2009 and expanded its annual throughput capacity to 6,00,000 TEUs with two new post-Panamax cranes and a 14.5-metre depth dredged to accommodate larger vessels.
Infrastructure shortcomings continue to be an area of concern for both shippers and port operators, as current road and rail networks strain under the sharply increasing demands for linking ports to interior industrial and commercial centres. Mr Fejfer’s discussions included concerns in infrastructure support and a commitment to work together to aid the country’s growth.
(Sourced from Exim News Service)
