To curb dependency on China, India to promote domestic container production

Aimed at curbing Chinese dependency in the Indian container market and promote Indian producers, the Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) had decided to float an open tender inviting domestic manufacturers to supply cargo containers.

In the lines with the Centre Make in India policy, the government decided to encourage domestic companies to produce cargo containers.

CONCOR, a PSU under the Ministry of Railways is already a leader in the Indian container market. It recently gave a developmental order for 1,000 containers each to Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) and Braithwaite & Co.

BHEL, a PSU under the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Braithwaite is a heavy fabrication unit under the Indian Railways.

So far CONCOR has been purchasing containers from China as the neighbouring country is a global leader in the sector. In a year, CONCOR procures around 8,000 containers from China, at a total cost of around Rs 200 crore.

"Our annual requirement will be around 8,000 containers for the next five years. We are going to float an open tender, inviting domestic manufacturers for this," said V Kalyana Rama, chairman and managing director of CONCOR said.

Indian steel players like SAIL, Tata Steel and Jindal Steel confirmed the availability of required better grade steels. On the other hand, Indian Manufacturing companies like Kalyani Cast Tech, Balmer Lawrie, Transafe, DCM Hyundai (Hindustan Vaccum), too, showed their interest, said a statement from CONCOR.

Currently, India has no capability to manufacture its own cargo containers. All manufactured by foreign players, mostly Chinese companies. China is a global leader in cargo containers due to its cheaper price.

"To cut down Chinese companies dependency, India now wants to promote domestic manufacturers to begin with producing at public sector undertaking companies. If bulk order is received, then Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) and Braithwaite & Co have agreed to invest to set up production units to produce containers," said an official.