The Hindu Business Line : Concor teams up with APL for box freight station at Dadri complex

STATE-RUN Container Corporation of India Ltd (Concor) has forged a joint venture company with American President Lines (APL) for the purpose of operating a private container freight station (CFS) at its Dadri inland container depot (ICD) located at Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh.

APL (the container shipping arm of Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines or NOL) will hold 51 per cent share in the joint venture company christened Trident Terminals Pvt Ltd while Concor will have the balance 49 per cent stake, a Concor official told Business Line.

The joint venture agreement was signed here on Thursday between Concor Managing Director, Mr A.K. Kohli and the Chief Executive Officer of NOL Group, Mr David Lim.

This is the third CFS to be developed by Concor at Dadri in joint venture with a private shipping entity after Maersk and the Transworld Group. All the three CFS will be strategically located near Concor's railhead at ICD, Dadri. The total project cost of each of these CFS is estimated to be around Rs 16 crore.

"We have a lot of cargo moving from Delhi, but are handicapped by the absence of a dedicated CFS. By setting up a CFS in association with Concor, we plan to consolidate the cargo in Delhi and provide state-of-the-art facilities and services to our customers in Northern India," an APL official said.

In May this year, Concor had signed a joint venture deal with the Transworld Group of companies to develop a CFS at Dadri. Transworld Group will have management control of the proposed Albatross CFS with 51 per cent stake while Concor will hold the remaining 49 per cent equity.

Early last year, Concor had formed a joint venture company with Maersk named Star Track Terminals Pvt Ltd to set up a CFS at Dadri. Maersk holds 51 per cent equity in Star Track Terminals with Concor holding the remaining 49 per cent stake.

Concor has decided to join hands with container shipping lines for setting up CFS in a bid to consolidate its business with customers who provide a bulk of its cargo. For instance, Maersk is Concor's biggest customer, providing for about 20 per cent of its cargo business.

By setting up joint ventures with Concor, the shipping lines will have dedicated space in which they can provide value added logistics services. "For Concor, they are more like a marketing arm, enabling the railway PSU to tie up volumes in this manner," the Concor official stated.

The Dadri ICD is a mega terminal, connected by six railway lines and designed to handle eventually one million TEUs. While a portion of the ICD has been developed by Concor on its own, the balance requirement is being met by entering into partnerships with private shipping lines who will have the responsibility to develop the CFS independently.

"It is a strategic decision. Since the management control of the CFS will be vested with the shipping lines by holding 51 per cent stake, they have a commitment to these ventures to bring in the volumes," the Concor official noted.

The CFS being set up by Concor with private sector will handle all activities and operations such as export consolidation, stuffing and movement, import movement, storage, de-stuffing, warehousing, monitoring of reefers for exporters and importers, consolidators, custom agents and shipping lines.

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