You’re in charge of Maersk’s container operations in South Asia. What has been your experience?

Let me explain that geographically my area of operation covers India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan.

Over the years, the region as a whole witnessed steady growth ranging between 5.5 and 6.5 per cent. But India’s story is different.

How?

India accounts for 65 to 70 per cent of the region and the growth has been an impressive 15 to 17 per cent on year to year basis.

What about Maersk India’s growth?

It has generally been in line with the overall market growth but in the past two years, ever since P&O Nedlloyd was merged with Maersk, the growth has been higher.

What is your market share?

Difficult to estimate precisely as it varies from product to product and market to market; should be around 10 per cent. But it is a rough estimate.

What are your future plans for the Indian market?

I strongly feel that the Indian market will continue to grow and, barring unforeseen catastrophe, the present growth trend looks established. We’ll introduce capacity and services depending on how the market grows. But then worldwide there are not many ports left where Maersk Line does not offer services.

What makes you so bullish about India?

I have been working here for the past 11 years, first for P&O Nedlloyd and now for Maersk. I’ve watched with admiration the growth of the Indian economy, not only the GDP growth which is certainly commendable but also growth on the external front. India’s share in global trade now stands at 1.5/1.6 per cent, up from 0.5/0.6 per cent a few years ago. This is really impressive.

How intense is the competition in the Indian sub-continent?

The competition is pretty intense. In economic terms, it can be said that the container market in the region operates in perfect competition, the freight movement being driven by the free interplay of market forces, i.e. demand and supply.

It suits us fine because it encourages efficiency and benefits trade. But …

But …

Of late, the sluggish growth of the North American market has been a matter of concern. It will be rash to say that the signs of recession are visible.

I’ll only say that the rate of growth of demand has been somewhat slow. From India, we have direct services to the US East Coast ports and the market is very competitive.

Any other area of concern?

The growth of India’s infrastructure sector leaves much to be desired.

By infrastructure we not only mean physical infrastructure such as roads and ports but also legislative infrastructure.

Legislative infrastructure?

It is not enough to build roads and ports, unless the legislative back-up is sound enough to operate them efficiently.

For example, the Customs rules must be in tune with the liberalisation on other fronts. The rules must be flexible enough for seamless growth of foreign trade. As long the government policy remains unclear, the reform process will be slow.

What do you suggest?

The government by itself is not expected to create everything. But it can most certainly create opportunities so that others feel encouraged to invest in infrastructure and the best way to do it will be to create an environment where the return on investment in infrastructure is enough to attract more and more investments.

Two of Maersk’s four services out of Jawaharlal Nehru port are from Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal, which is a competitor to Gateway Terminal India promoted by APM Terminals belonging to the same AP Moller Group of which Maersk Line is also a part ..…

There is nothing unusual about it. GTI operates its terminal as a common user facility used not only by Maersk but also several other lines and this perhaps explains the astounding growth of GTI.

As a container operator, Maersk Line goes strictly by prices and the quality of services.

In this regard, we’re quite happy with NSICT just as our equation with DP World, the owner and operator of NSICT, is excellent at other ports such as Chennai and Karachi (Pakistan) where DP World is also the terminal operator.

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