Maersk warns Indians
Steen Lund, Maersk’ s senior vp Asia for line management, recently made some extremely high profile remarks to the press regarding what he sees as capacity bottlenecks at some container ports in India.
Overall, he notes, Indian ports are beginning to lack competitiveness compared to other regional players, which places the country’s overseas trade at risk.
Lund questioned the current speed at which tender processes involving foreign investment were being progressed, noting that currently bidding conditions were being altered at the last possible moment, while processes were frequently being postponed.
Maersk already holds a 26% stake in a joint venture partnership with PSA Corp at India’s first privatised container terminal operation at the port of Pipavav, and is currently bidding for the concession for the third terminal at JNPT.
In the meantime, the Shipping Ministry is debating the possibility of increasing the current 30-year limit on BOT contracts to 99 years in order to make them more attractive to bidders. However, this will apply only to future projects and will not be retroactive. The original guidelines governing concessions across 13 major ports were drawn up in October 1996 and are seen as an inhibiting factor in attracting blue chip investment.
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