Maersk makes fresh maritime push in India: 1,000 indigenous EXIM containers ordered; talks with Cochin Shipyard, L&T Shipbuilding underway
Maersk on July 3 received the first Indian-made EXIM container, after which the shipping and logistics major placed an order for 1,000 more
Maersk on July 3 received the first Indian-made EXIM container, after which the shipping and logistics major placed an order for 1,000 more.
Maersk on July 3 received the first Indian-made EXIM container, after which the shipping and logistics major placed an order for 1,000 more.
Maersk on July 3 received the first Indian-made EXIM container, after which the shipping and logistics major placed an order for 1,000 more.
In a major push for India's maritime sector, shipping and logistics giant A.P Moller-Maersk (Maersk) on Friday received the first export-import (EXIM) container made in-house, and has also entered new talks with Indian shipbuilders.
Manufactured at the Maersk-CONCOR Inland Container Depot in Uttar Pradesh's Dadri by the DCM Shriram Group and procured internationally, the EXIM container was unveiled by Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW), Sarbananda Sonowal, at an event on Friday.
The event also saw Maersk place an order for 1,000 more such containers, in what is touted as a major push for the country's larger goals under the Make in India and Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047 initiatives.
"(This) reflects the growing confidence of global industry in India's manufacturing capabilities and our commitment to building world-class maritime infrastructure," Sonowal said at the event.
This comes more than a year after PM Modi's February 2025 meeting with Robert Maersk Uggla, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of A.P. Moller-Maersk, in which the PM urged that the shipping giant invest in Indian-made containers.
The manufacture of containers within India—in line with international standards such as ISO specifications and the International Convention for Safe Containers (CSC)—is an important part of the Rs 10,000 crore Container Manufacturing Assistance Scheme (CMAS).
Supported by the Union Budget 2026, the scheme targets an annual domestic manufacturing capacity of one million TEUs over the next 10 years.
Apart from building capex support for establishing greenfield container manufacturing, it also aims to expand on existing brownfield facilities, provide opex support to bridge the cost gap per container, and to boost research, testing, skilling, and capacity building in this field.
Fresh talks with Indian shipbuilders
Maersk also recently entered into talks with Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) and L&T Shipbuilding Ltd for the construction of more small ships, such as tugs and feeder container vessels.
“We are already in discussions, and you will see more being done,” Ahmed Hassan, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Asset Strategy and Operations at Maersk told ETInfra.
CSL and L&T have been touted as possible choices to order feeder container ships from, similar to the CMA CGM order for six LNG-fuelled vessels.
ALSO READ | Why does CMA CGM want to build more ships in India? PM Modi, Rodolphe Saade discuss maritime collaborations
However, the report added that Swan Defence and Heavy Industries (SDHI) was also a possible third choice for tug orders.
"What we are more keen about is how to make the big ships (in India) rather than make it a tick box exercise,” Hassan added, pointing out that once Indian shipyards overcome operational constraints, Maersk would put in orders for bigger vessels.