Chief Guest, Mr. Steve M. Felder, Managing Director - South
Asia, Maersk India reaffirms his committment to deliver best-in-class
logistics solutions
KOLKATA: The Calcutta Freight Brokers Association (CFBA) recently held
its 81st Annual General Meeting at Bengal Chamber of Commerce, Kolkata
on July 12, 2019.
Shri VIVEK CHOUDHARY, Chairman of the Calcutta Freight Brokers, in his
speech, welcomed Chief Guest, Mr. Steve M. Felder, Managing Director
South Asia, Maersk India Pvt Ltd., and other distinguished guests from
shipping lines and freight forwarding business. He also thanked the
members of the Bombay Overseas Freight Broker's Association Shri Anup
Deosthalee and Shri Jayesh Gandhi.
While giving a brief overview of the International Container trade and
the shipping industry, the Chairman said, “Today's container market is
confronting more than its fair share of headwinds. There have been
concerns of a slowing global economy stoked by the ongoing US-China
Trade War.”
While talking about the home port, he focussed on the performance of
Kolkata Port Trust. “In 2018-2019, the TEUs handled by the port showed a
growth of 4.18 %, from 7,96,211 TEUs to 8,29,482 TEUs.
Seeking the long pending demand from shipping lines, the CFBA Chairman
said, “The focus of the Association continued towards building up
healthier partnerships with the shipping companies in order to jointly
address issues of mutual interest. Expansion of service portfolios for
the clients and focus towards customer satisfaction would be primary
importance going ahead. It was felt necessary that BOFBA and CFBA work
hand in hand towards addressing the brokerage issues jointly with the
shipping companies,” Mr Choudhary said.
“The committee has
been in regular contact with all major shipping lines in an effort to
realign services in the changing scenario in order to ensure regular
brokerage returns.
The committee has been closely following up with the shipping lines and
updating members on status of brokerage payments,” the CFBA Chairman
said.
Praising Calcutta Freight Brokers' contribution towards logistics
growth of East India, Chief Guest of the evening, Mr. Steve M. Felder,
Managing Director - South Asia, Maersk India Pvt Ltd., pointed out that “
India is both exciting from a production and a consumption perspective,
and on the latter, it is worth noting that it is now the World's 3rd
largest consumer market, expecting to reach $6 trillion by 2030.”
Focussing on India's economic scenario, Maersk India Chief said, “The
Government of India has progressed multiple initiatives aimed at
improving the Ease of Doing Business, also buoyed by major GST reforms
and a new insolvency act.”
Highlighting on the present scenario in India's maritime trade, Mr.
Steve said, “The relaxation of longstanding cabotage restrictions has
enabled shipping lines to more effectively address positioning of empty
containers to deficit locations, thereby enabling Indian exporters to
consistently connect to markets around the world; and for Indian ports
to equitably compete with key transhipment hubs in the broader region.
Talking on India's port sector and shipping services by Maersk Line,
the Maersk India Chief said, “The advent of additional port capacity on
both coasts, as part of the Sagarmala initiative, has resulted in a
near-eradication of congestion in most ports, enabling Maersk to achieve
record schedule reliability, and position India with headroom to grow
in the future. It is noteworthy that India now enjoys 45 mainline
services a week – up from 35 in 2011, and the size of vessels has almost
doubled from 3,700 TEU to 6,200 TEU. India has 14,500km's of navigable
waterways, and Maersk has been privileged to be the first shipping line
to partner with Government on piloting key routes, including from
Varanasi to Kolkata, and from Kochi to Kattayam.”
Maersk looking forward to explore it's potential further
“We look forward to exploring this potential further, to the benefit of
all stakeholders.” As outlined in the Draft National Logistics Policy,
which we are delighted to have played a role in, there are still number
of key challenges to be advanced for the benefit of Indian importers and
exporters, including a reduction in logistics cost (from the current
baseline of 14% of GDP), improved connectivity between hinterland and
coastal markets, and further digitization. We at Maersk are committed to
walking side by side with Government in realizing these lofty goals.
Considering the East Coast port's contribution in country's economic
growth driver, Mr. Steve highlighted that, “Whereas India is growing
overall, with 7-7.5% GDP growth forecasted for this year, it is also
fair to say that the East Coast remains a key driver of this growth,
considering the strategic location of East India which acts as a gateway
for South-East Asian countries. Since China has overtaken the US as the
largest trading partner of India, the East Indian Ports have become
busier. Traditionally, ports in the West Coast had a significant share
in container traffic, at least twice that of the ports in Eastern
India.”
Kolkata : the oldest riverine port of India has a big role to play
Focussing on Eastern Ports, he said, “However, the trend has shown a
reversal as India's merchandise trade with Asian nations is growing
faster than the West. The Eastern Ports are closer to where the action
in Asia is and are therefore growing. West Bengal also acts as a natural
corridor to the North-Eastern States of India, Nepal and Bhutan.
Needless to say, in all this, the oldest riverine port of India has a
big role to play.”
Expressing his concern over high port tariffs and policy matters,
Maersk India Chief said, “However, we as an industry are also facing
some tough times with high costs. High port tariffs make Indian ports
uncompetitive compared to global peers in their bid to attract more
large-size direct calls, which was the primary reason for the abolition
of restrictive cabotage rules. Indian terminals are also costlier
compared with their foreign counterparts when it comes to cargo-related
rates.”
He also expressed his concern on global warming and its impact on
maritime sector. Mr Steve claims it as another challenge, climate, an
important issue even globally. “The transport sector is responsible for
23% of global energy-related emission. Shipping alone is responsible for
2-3% of global emissions.”
“We at Maersk are committed to new sulphur regulation of IMO 2020 of
reducing emission of sulphur particles from vessel to 0.5% in 2020 from
baseline of 3.5%. Maersk target for 2050 is aimed at carbon-neutral
shipping.”
“Maersk is an active member of MACN (Maritime Anti-Corruption Network)
driving elimination of corruption in the maritime industry, and I urge
you all to participate in this effort.”
Briefing on a number of initiatives taken by Maersk Group, the Mr Steve
said, “... over the past 2 years, in order to ensure our valued
customers – are able to leverage this growth story, we have undertaken a
number of initiatives.
Our Engagement with Brokers have increased, which has helped us
understand more about the brokers' business and their customers' needs,
to support their business growth.”
• With our multiple products offerings in Logistics and
Services along with our Ocean products, we are working to simplify and
connecting brokers' customers' supply chain for further growth
• Each broker has a dedicated customer service agent to look after their business All THE WAY
• Keeping pace with the digital advancement, we recognize
the importance of offering cutting edge digital solutions to our
customers
• We are proud to be the first in the industry to launch
“fixed spot offers” as a digital channel for our customers exporting on
most of the corridors across the globe.
• We have also launched a range of locally inspired digital
solutions, such as an enhanced importer interface, and an expansion of
payment options including PayTM.
“Most notably, in line with our vision of becoming the global
integrator of container logistics, we have integrated our shipping and
supply chain businesses and most recently even the Inland services, and
are now well positioned to offer you a full range of supply chain
solutions.”
Maersk India Chief concluded his speech affirming that, “we are eager
to partner with you to deliver best-in-class logistics solutions and are
very enthused and excited about the prospects in India.”
The Association decided to extend the tenure of the committee for 2 years for better working environment.
Vivek Choudhary continue as Chairman, Shri Ajay Chhajer, Vice Chairman,
Shri J.S Chopra, Shri Rajiv Agarwall, Shri Pawan Farmania, Shri Bharat
Jain, and Mr Manoj Vyas will continue as Managing Committee Member for
the term 2018-2020.
