Choppy waters for shipping industry for next 12-16 months, says Jassper Shipping’s CEO

We have congestion in major ports like Kandla in Gujarat, because there are very limited ports with good facilities and accessibility and that adds significantly to the logistics costs, says Kaushik.

Around 95 per cent of India's trading by volume and 70 per cent by value is done through maritime transport, according to the Ministry of Shipping. The industry, which is a major revenue generator with about 14 per cent of India's GDP, is struggling with challenges starting from poor technology adoption, difficulty in access to finance and lack of coherent government policies to support the ecosystem, Pushpank Kaushik, founder and chief executive of shipbroking and freight forwarding major Jassper Shipping revealed in an interview with DH’s Lavpreet Kaur. Edited excerpts. 

Why has the share of shipping not grown significantly? 

Indian maritime industry could not progress as much because there was no government in the entire time frame of 75 years that could chalk out a roadmap for the maritime industry. For those present in India, there were no schemes that would motivate them to own their ships and have containers that are manufactured in India or promote financial institutions to accept ships as collaterals. In the last 10 years, I would say there has been a significant focus on maritime, but in comparison to how much is needed, it would still be just 5 per cent. 

Is the National Logistics Policy (NLP) and push on multimodal logistics helping in any way? 

NLP is a framework. Implementation is a distant reality at the moment. It is a good start definitely, majorly from the perspective of digital inclusion. The push on coastal shipping in the last two decades has done wonders for the country.

From the perspective of multimodal logistics, while inland waterways have been developed, integrating rivers is a challenge. Our rivers do not have a standard draft and not all states are connected with the inland waterways. So, while it is a good idea, our rivers are different from other countries like China and this strategy is not working for us.

As compared to other countries, how do we fare in the turnaround times? 

Turnaround time for shipping definitely has reduced. However, we have congestion in major ports like Kandla in Gujarat, because there are very limited ports with good facilities and accessibility and that adds significantly to the logistics costs. Privatisation has helped a lot of ports to come up but compared to other countries, we have to do much more. 

What is the technology adoption landscape looking like in shipping? 

In the 1990s, we were the rarest of industries that started using emails but we stopped right there. We have no idea of how AI integration can do wonders for our industry and have very few algorithm-based prediction softwares. Even if a startup comes up in this space it has to shut down because of a lukewarm response from the industry. 

Big companies like Maersk, CMA and HAPAG LLOYD, which are not Indian, are coming up with solutions that are available for mobile applications but these are only 7-8 companies. In India- the ship operators, owners, brokers or custom house agents (CHAs) or even the stevedoring companies, the smaller players that make up the shipping industry - they hardly have the software in hand which they can use. The main reason being there is no cross-functional professional available, who can share the knowledge with other industries (particularly IT) to find solutions for shipping.

Take us through the top trends expected to define the shipping and logistics industry in India. 

India has a big advantage as it is one of the most self-sufficient countries in this global economic slowdown. Many countries depend on us for their food because we have additional crop output coming out every year. So India is the global warehouse and with China+1 ramping up,  is the next big country to look out for. 

What will make India stand out is the business and technology integration. Today, everybody is looking for end-to-end services and that would need a lot of companies to integrate with each other and we will see a lot of mergers and acquisitions happening in shipping and logistics. We are using some of the finest technologies and we are very open to adapting new technologies and partnering with foreign companies.

What about your company’s plans?

Our revenue in the last fiscal was about $1.7 million. We are looking at a growth forecast of about 30-35 per cent with a capex forecast of  $100,000 for the current fiscal. We are already available at 14 Indian ports on the east coast of India and in the next 12-18 months, we will be available at 10 ports on the west coast as shipping agents. We also plan to expand internationally. In the next 12-14 months, we will be present in the Netherlands and in another 6-8 months we will touch Mombasa in Africa as well as Europe.

We are looking for a complete technology overhaul in the next 24-36 months even though it might be a very difficult journey for us to find partners.

What is your outlook for the global shipping industry?

We are definitely in for a difficult 12-16 months in shipping owing to recessionary fears that will directly impact the industry. All the shipping companies have to be on their toes to survive. However, once that ends, towards the second half of 2024, we will see a U-shaped growth. We are at the bottom at the moment and we can expect a good jump.