Bhavnagar is quickly transforming into a manufacturing hub for shipping containers. While one manufacturer of the city has won a bid to supply 10,000 shipping containers in a year to the Container Corporation of India (CONCOR), another firm is in the advanced stage of manufacturing containers. Besides, six more manufacturers are working on plans to start container manufacturing in the near future.
The firm that won the bid is APPL Containers Private Limited. The Vartej-based company was working to create a manufacturing facility for shipping containers for the last one year and they made an investment of Rs 70 crore for machinery.
Its director Hasmukh Patel said, “We won the commercial bid of international tender issued by Concor. We have obtained ISO standard certification for our design. We first cleared the technical evaluation and then won a financial bid.”
APPL Containers received its first order from CONCOR last week and now they will start commercial production. Concor chairman V Kalyana Rama on Monday visited two facilities of container manufacturing in Bhavnagar, including that of APPL, to examine the technical parameters. Concor is the biggest public sector company in container sector.
There was a huge shortage of containers after Covid relaxation last year all over the world and this had resulted in pushing container freights. China is a major manufacturer of shipping containers in the international market.
The shipping ministry has decided to create a cluster of container manufacturers in Bhavnagar and extend all support. A committee to resolve the issues of manufacturers has been formed and it comprises bureaucrats, members of national shipping board and of Saurashtra Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI).
Kirit Soni, member of this committee and former president of SCCI, said: “This is the first step of our success but there are many challenges. To make Bhavnagar a container manufacturing cluster, the government needs to announce a production-linked incentive scheme for the first few years. The raw material, corten steel, should be made available easily and its price should remain in control because we have to compete in the international market.”
Rahul Modi, member of national shipping board and a committee member, said: “I am looking for more industries to start manufacturing shipping containers as soon as possible. We are optimistic looking at the developments in Bhavnagar.”
