Container Corporation (Concor), the largest intermodal logistics provider in India, is adopting proactive ways to reinvigorate train loads as export/import trade volumes trend down.
Concor has put out an advisory offering extra tariff incentives for empty movement, subject to incremental import volumes handled/committed by carriers.
“With a view to support the EXIM (Export-Import) trade at various hinterland terminals, Concor has announced an additional discount scheme on empty containers moved from various gateway ports/port-side CFSs [container freight stations] to hinterland terminals for export purpose, based on the incremental import volumes offered by the shipping lines,” the company said.
Concor added, “The average import loaded volume of any shipping line booked from various gateway ports to hinterland terminals on a monthly basis from November 2020 to March 2021 and November 2021 to March 2022 will be considered for ascertaining the incremental import volume for the respective months from November 2022 to March 2023.”
Concor noted that additional rebates so accrued will be offered by way of a refund of average rail freight collected towards repositioning of empties in the same month.
Concor, which is an offshoot of Indian Railways, has a countrywide ICD (inland container depot) network.
Ironically, Indian Railways recently began to remove some of the concessions, like haulage subsidies implemented earlier, in a phased manner and also reintroduced a 15% peak season surcharge on all freight from 1 October, after suspending it in 2019, on the back of growing volumes and in anticipation of sustained demand.
Indian freight volumes had bounced back strongly from the disruption caused by the initial Covid lockdown, allowing the public transporter to adjust pricing dynamically. Railways saw freight loads rise 15% year-on-year in the fiscal year 2021-22 and the momentum continued into the initial months of 2022.
As exports cooled, the flow of empty containers out of port terminals and off-site yards has considerably slowed, and stakeholders are hoping some incentives will encourage carriers to pick up more empties for repositioning into the hinterlands.
Fiscal 2021-22 was a bumper year for Concor, with overall train loads hitting a new high of 4.07 million TEUs, up from 3.6 million TEUs a year earlier. Its annual net profit doubled to some US$139 million on a 19% increase in consolidated revenue.
Last month, Concor established a new rail connection from ICD Katuwas, a hinterland location in North India, to Benapole, a border customs point in Bangladesh, in a cross-border logistics arrangement as bilateral trade between the two neighbouring countries expands.
Jenny Daniel
Global Correspondent
Contact email: j.daniel@container-news.com
