Category Archives: Warehousing

The warehousing sector, which was mainly concentrated in tier I cities – especially the major eight metros, had started shifting to tier 2 locations after certain policy initiatives. “Due to interstate lockdown, supply chains of multiple sectors, both in production as well as stock piling have frozen,” says, Chandranath Dey, Head – Industrial Operations, JLL India. “Restrictions on airfreight have also reduced movement of critical components of production for various industries globally. These restrictions have also limited transactions in the growth oriented e-commerce sector. Post lockdown, a change in consumer behaviour is expected towards e-commerce and e-payments. Urban logistics or in-city warehousing will gain traction due to higher penetration of groceries e-commerce,” he adds.

Maersk has announced the Inland Container Depot (ICD) Madurai as a new acceptance point to help the trade in the hinterland of Tamil Nadu. Equipped with a warehouse to support faster cargo clearance, the ICD will help reduce the overall logistics costs by up to 30 per cent, while also providing operational transparency to customers. Spread over a total area of about 70 acres, the state-of-art ICD is one of the largest in the country and will serve as a major infrastructural hub for South India. Steve Felder, Managing Director, Maersk South Asia, said “Our operations at ICD Madurai are aimed at reducing logistics costs for our customers by cutting the cargo transport journey by up to 150 km. We are also tapping into the hinterlands’ potential by opening up new trade possibilities and enabling ease of doing business for the trading community in the region.”

In line with the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s (MoCA) Krishi Udan Scheme, GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL) has signed a tri-partite MoU with SpiceJet and Ras-Al-Khaimah International Airport (RKT), UAE. The MoU aims at promoting export of agricultural products from India to UAE and neighbouring countries via Hyderabad. As part of this initiative, Hyderabad Airport has collaborated with Spicejet and Ras-Al-Khaimah International Airport to create a dedicated freight corridor to leverage the tremendous agro and farming sector potential from centrally located Telangana and the neighboring regions. The target market for this endeavour includes Dubai, Abudhabi, Sharjah and Bahrain. Specially designed equipment will be used for transportation of goods through the dedicated freighter aircraft of SpiceJet. SGK Kishore, CEO, GMR Hyderabad International Airport, said, “Through this endeavour, we are also collaborating with farmer associations towards enabling a perennial supply of farm products through a dedicated freighter corridor. This MoU will create a robust platform to harness our agricultural markets and help create an entire ecosystem for exporting perishable agro products from Hyderabad.”

Ahmedabad Custom Brokers Association (ACBA) tied up with Logistics Skill Council to impart one day program on ‘Recognition of Prior Learning’ at Ahmedabad. Around 220 candidates from logistics industry had attended this training program and 194 candidates has successfully appeared for examination after completion of session. Samir J. Shah, Ex-Chairman, FFFAI & Chairman, ACBA has explained about the recognition of prior learning and benefits of the same. He also explained the upcoming changes in Indian customs, shipping and logistics. The program not only helped candidates to sharpen their knowledge but get the deep idea of the changing pattern and scenario of logistics Industry in coming time. “ACBA will organise same type of training session in upcoming days for the betterment of logistics industry informs,” Kartik Pancholi, President, ACBA.

Logistics leasing activity in India has reached a high of 33 million square feet, increasing by more than 30 percent on an annual basis, according to the report released by CBRE. Bengaluru, NCR and Mumbai accounted for about 60 per cent of the overall space take-up during the year. In line with the annual trend, the second half of 2019 also recorded historic leasing activity, with about 18 million square feet of space take-up; an increase of about 20 percent compared to H1 2019. Anshuman Magazine, Chairman & CEO – India, South East Asia, Middle East & Africa, CBRE said, “To become a USD 5 trillion economy, the government aims at enacting several structural reforms to improve physical connectivity.”

ESR, the Warburg Pincus-backed company, is planning to develop a 300,000 square metre (3.2 million square foot) logistics park on the site in Haryana state. The company acquired the land parcel, which is adjacent to the 223,000 square metre Keystone Knowledge Park science and technology hub. “ESR India is committed to building institutional grade logistics infrastructure to facilitate the development and modernisation of the nation’s supply chain. ESR Sohna will be well-positioned to cater to the needs of the expanding e-commerce industry with state-of-the-art infrastructure to aid advanced supply chain and logistics processes,” says, Abhijit Malkani and Jai Mirpuri, Country Heads of ESR India, in a joint statement. Located in the city of Sohna, 55 kilometres south of Indira Gandhi International Airport, the proposed high-spec park will support last-mile delivery for the business hubs of New Delhi, Gurugram and Faridabad.

  JSW Infrastructure has signed a Concession Agreement with New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) to develop and operate its first container terminal project at the port for 30 years. JSW Infrastructure is investing nearly Rs300 crore to develop the container terminal which will have a capacity of 400,000 TEUs. As part of the proposed investment, JSW Infrastructure will undertake mechanisation of Berth No 14 for handling containers and other cargo on Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis. The container terminal will have a quay length of 350 meters and accommodate vessels up to 9000 TEUs. It will have a backup storage area of 15.5 hectares for storage of container. Commenting on the development Arun Maheshwari, Joint MD & CEO, JSW Infrastructure said, “Container terminal at NMPT will enable us to expand our footprints in container segment and diversify our cargo mix. We expect to commission the terminal by mid of next year. It will play a key role in economic development of NMPT and the entire region expanding upto Mysore, Hassan and Bengaluru.”

N Sivasailam, Special Secretary – Logistics, Department of Commerce, Government of India has kindly consented to grace the India Cargo Awards 2019. India Cargo Awards 2019 are scheduled to be held on January 27, 2020 from 7 pm to 10 pm at the Crowne Plaza Greater Noida. Sivasailam is an officer of the 1985 batch of the Indian Administrative Service allotted to Karnataka Cadre. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering, University of Delhi. He did his Master’s in Business Administration at the Faculty Management Studies, University of Delhi, and Master’s in Social Policy & Planning from the London School of Economics and Post Graduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Rights Law (IPRL) from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. Prior to this assignment, he served as an Additional Chief Secretary in the Department of Public Enterprises, Government of Karnataka. He has served in the Departments of Health & Family Welfare and Medical Education, Forest, Ecology & Environment Departments of the Government of Karnataka as Principal Secretary.

To develop logistics parks in key consumption hubs in India, Allcargo Logistics has partnered with Blackstone Group. Blackstone will invest up to Rs380 crore in Allcargo Logistics to develop industrial and logistics parks across India. Blackstone proposes to make its investment in the platform, by way of debt and equity. Allcargo will retain a minority stake in the various logistics assets and transfer its debt as it relates to these specific assets to their relevant subsidiaries. The transaction is expected to conclude in a phase wise manner over the next 12 months, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions and achievement of certain milestones. “Through this strategic tie-up, we reiterate our commitment and positioning to create a global benchmark in warehousing infrastructure and provide state-of-the-art warehousing solutions to our customers,” states Shashi Kiran Shetty, Chairman, Allcargo Logistics.

The MCCI Logistics Forum 2019 emphasised on regular communication between importers of Nepal and the service providers in India to bring down logistics cost. Sudip Dey, Vice Chairman, Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations in India (FFFAI), suggests, “There must be regular interactions between the importers of Nepal and Kolkata Service providers to bring down cost of Nepal import. It was only due to lack of communication that anomalies were happening (e.g. port ground rent, penalty by Railways etc). KOPT may keep a liaison officer in Nepal for dealing with day to day issues. Border restrictions for transit into Nepal should be done away with and vigilance should be done with the help of risk management & IT.” Highlighting the importance of Indo-Nepal as well as regional trade MCCI officials maintained that an efficient logistics and transportation infrastructure would be critical for strengthening India’s trade and economic engagement with its neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar.