The Hindu Business Line : India can be shipyard to the world

Indian companies, among the largest ship managers of international fleets, can offer efficient systems for technical management, manning and other safety-related operations.

India is well recognised as the back-office to the world, and has a flourishing Business Process Outsourcing industry that covers a range of activities, from information technology to medical transcription.

The country's shipping industry too can chart a course in this area by offering various services to the international maritime community. Indian companies, among the largest ship managers of international fleets, can offer efficient systems for technical management, manning and other safety related operations, emphasised a paper presented by Mr Umesh C. Grover, Director, Shipping Corporation of India Ltd, at a seminar on `Indian Maritime Transport Services — Global Opportunities and Challenges,' organised as part of the National Maritime Day celebrations in Kochi last week.

With a growing international fleet and the imperative to cut operational costs, shipping companies across the world may want to outsource many of the processes to low labour cost countries and concentrate on core activities. Given the potential of the country's BPO sector, the maritime community should jointly work towards marketing its services and emerge the preferred ship managers to the world.

Big opportunity

Mr Grover said the Indian maritime community could be on a great opportunity as all sectors of the industry are in a boom. With growing partnership between the public and the private sectors, the shipping industry can scale new heights and India can emerge a major maritime service nation. It is time the maritime fraternity transformed itself into a key link in the world logistical chain.

While shipping companies worldwide have been regarded as valuable links in international trade, the role played by maritime firms is gaining significance. The recent retail boom would require vital logistics network to ensure the timely delivery of goods from production sources to the various store locations at minimal time and cost.

This opens up opportunities for the maritime fraternity, as it can offer entire supply chain management to the retailers. Maritime companies can offer efficient transportation, warehousing and distribution facilities for all types of perishables as well as durables.

Ship-building

Referring to shipbuilding, Mr Grover said that the unprecedented boom in this industry world wide offers opportunities for India too. Recently, Indian shipyards have received a number of orders from international ship-owners. However, a major challenge is the lack of support infrastructure. Steel, main engine and major equipment together account for over 60 per cent of the cost of a vessel and for ships built for India, almost all of these have to be imported.

Countries such as Japan, Korea and China have an established shipbuilding and steel plate-manufacturing set up. If Indian shipyards want to compete successfully in the international market, such steel needs to be manufactured in the country. Also, the Indian maritime community needs to attract major engine and equipment makers to set up manufacturing units in the country, which would make the input costs of these materials for building ships competitive.

Human resource

India is ranked sixth in manpower supply in the international maritime community with about 25,000 deck and engineering officers, 19,000 other category officers including petty officers and 54,000 ratings. Indian seafarers are recognised for their superior academic achievements, analytical and problem solving skills and, above all, the command over English. Major international companies source their manpower from India, which has over 150 training institutes that produce about 11,164 seafarers (4575 officers and 6589 ratings) annually.

Shortage of seafarers is an international phenomenon and the Indian maritime industry also faces this problem. The problem is compounded by the fact that seafaring is not the preferred profession for youngsters in developed nations any more and these countries have to depend upon seafaring nations like India for the human resource to man their fleets.

The immediate challenge before the Indian maritime community is, therefore, to improve the supply of qualified seafarers by setting up new institutes as well as increasing the capacity of the existing ones.