The Hindu Business Line : Evergreen group to set up shop in India

INDIA'S steady growth in container traffic is attracting large container shipping lines to set up shop in the country, rather than operate through agencies.

Taiwan's Evergreen Group, the latest to have its own presence in India, has formed its wholly owned subsidiary and absorbed employees from its Indian agent, Greenways Shipping Agencies, to establish offices in Mumbai, New Delhi and Nhava Sheva. However, it is not known whether Evergreen has also taken over assets and liabilities of Greenways in these locations.

According to a source here, Evergreen's Indian operations started on April 1. Evergreen will not severe its relationship with Greenways entirely. It will have a sub-agency agreement with Greenways to maintain complete coverage of India. "We are waiting for more details on Evergreen's plans for other cities," he said.

Greenways has been Evergreen's agent since August 1986. It has offices across the country, including Chennai, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Kandla and Kolkata, the source said.

"The decision to have its own agency network was in recognition of the growing potential of the Indian market and its strategic location in the centre of the South-Asian region. India's requirements are growing so quickly and substantial investment is needed in new offices and new information technology systems that are essential if we are to be highly competitive in the global market place," a senior Evergreen official was quoted in a statement.

"India is already a country of more than one billion people and forecasters suggest it may have a greater population than China by 2050. Clearly the level of investment needed to service this size of market is too much to expect from a privately owned liner agency company," the official said.

Evergreen Marine, part of Evergreen Group, has a fleet of about 100 container carriers that serves over 240 locations in 80 countries. Its operations include several east-west routes between Asia and North America.

For the fiscal year ending March 2004, India's container traffic was close to four million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) as against 3.40 million TEUs in the previous year, said a source.

It may be recalled that in 2002, Mitsui OSK Lines, another major international shipping firm, started its own operations in India. Some of the other major shipping lines having a direct presence in the country include Maersk-Sealand and APL.