Maersk to start out new rail service for auto makers
Maersk has launched a rail service between its port in western India and the car manufacturing hub of Gurugram because the delivery group appears to spice up income from its “non-ocean” enterprise, its South Asia head instructed Reuters.
The rail service, which can carry auto elements for export and return with import cargoes, will even guarantee firms have extra predictability in managing their provide chain, Vikash Agarwal, managing director, Maersk South Asia stated on Tuesday. Last yr, the coronavirus pandemic disrupted provide chains for auto and different firms with highway transport coming to a near-halt in the course of the nationwide lockdown.
India is now seeing a second wave of infections and several other states have imposed curbs and curfews, elevating fears of disruption. Agarwal stated that whereas some firms went again to utilizing vans, a number of within the auto, garment and chemical sectors have caught to railways. “The customers who are contracting with us on the long term are considering rail as a sustainable solution,” he stated.
While the pandemic has accelerated Maersk’s plan to make an even bigger push into railways in India, it additionally comes as the corporate is diversifying globally and desires to spice up income from “logistics & services” which embrace rail and highway transport, air freight, warehousing and provide chain administration.
“Globally, Maersk wants to have a healthy balance between ocean and logistics & services (non-ocean solutions) and the strategy remains the same for India,” Agarwal stated, including that round 25%-30% of its export-import cargo in India is on rail. The Danish group’s international chairman, Jim Hagemann Snabe, instructed shareholders in the course of the annual assembly in March that the plan in the long term was to get about half its earnings from logistics & companies and the terminal enterprise the place profitability is increased
It would additionally scale back dependence on freight charges. Maersk stated it has signed up greater than 25 firms for its new service, which can join on to its delivery routes to North America for exports whereas bringing import cargoes from the Far East and Southeast Asia.
It didn’t disclose any names.Gurugram is residence to India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki, motorcycle maker Hero MotoCorp and auto elements suppliers like Continental.
