Identification of opportunities in India for an International Container Port Company

Background My-Port Incorporation, one of the few leading container port operators in the world, wants to strengthen its presence in India. The company has already established its presence at multiple ports across India's coastline. The company now wants to enhance its scale and scope through vertical integration on the landside to leverage on its presence at two large ports in India. For this, it needed to have a firm understanding of the various opportunities which it could tap. Thus, a study was essential to assess the potential of land-side developments and opportunities across regions.

Execution

Plan

To meet the objectives of the assignment, a team of experienced professionals with extensive background in container logistics and port operations was constituted.

The team structured the study into two phases - Phase 1 dealt with the flow pattern of container traffic movement and commodity profiles in India; based on the findings from Phase I and other factors, the 2nd phase focused on various related opportunities for land-side developments.

Activity

Roadmap

A detailed analysis of container flow was undertaken to map the overall container flow across India - this exercise encompassed the key nodes such as ports, hinterland zones, Inland Container Depots (ICDs), Container Freight Stations (CFSs) and also the various logistical modes (rail and road). The study involved primary surveys of the ports under study and of CFSs/ICDs in the hinterland which have an impact on these ports. The objective of this exercise was three-fold: 1) Gain insights on the hinterland clusters contributing to port container traffic; 2) Assess the growth potential of the identified hinterland clusters for traffic such as normal containers and reefer containers; and 3) Analyze the changing characteristics of hinterland traffic in the wake of infrastructure development and changing policy environment.

In the second phase of the study, various opportunities were evaluated, including CFS, ICD, cold chain, warehousing, Multi-Modal Logistics Park (MMLP), and Free Trade Warehousing Zones(FTWZ) - the idea was to analyze each of the opportunities, considering the market size and competition, growth prospects, regulatory guidelines, and synergies with the client's operations.

Value Proposition For My-Port Incorporation, the location analysis was performed with the objective to harness synergies from its existing facilities. It emerged from the study that the container markets across regions have their own unique features and peculiarities. Moreover, these regions are developing in a different manner from the infrastructure standpoint. Taking into account the regional peculiarities and potential synergies with existing operations, suitable hinterland clusters were shortlisted. Potential investment opportunities were recommended from the various available options filtered through the various growth and risk factors. The study helped My-Port to identify its focus areas and set the roadmap for detailed feasibility assessment in those areas.

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