India-Bangladesh joint task force on coastal shipping cooperation to meet in Delhi Economic Times The India-Bangladesh Joint Task Force on coastal shipping cooperation will meet in Dhaka in the first week of March to carry forward bilateral cooperation in the sector. This was stated by visiting Bangladesh Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque a day after his talks with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar and his separate meetings with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Special Secretary in Water Resources Ministry Amarjit Singh today. Coastal shipping is a new area identified by the two countries during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Dhaka in June last year, Haque told reporters here and the forthcoming meeting of the Task Force would take forward bilateral cooperation in the area. The Task Force would identify the Indian and Bangladeshi ports and the sea routes which are to be open for coastal shipping in ferrying goods and passenger services, he said.

Export boosters: can we go beyond tax breaks? Live Mint Reports indicate that the commerce ministry wants to exempt exporters in special economic zones (SEZs) from paying taxes. Its concern to revitalize exports, falling for more than a year in a row, is appreciated. But the suggestion is not. If tax breaks ever boosted exports, one has to only look at past causal outcomes: production is diverted to SEZs and government loses revenues. Worse, once fiscal incentives are instituted, there is resistance to withdrawal as interests get entrenched. Gains, if any, are at best limited to improved infrastructure facilities such as better power supply and connectivity. Exporting gains from the 2006 SEZ policy, which gave a 10-year tax break, have remained controversial. Research shows that India’s revealed comparative advantage (or RCA, an index with values below one indicating relative disadvantage of a country in that segment)

Terminal disruption slows growth at India's biggest port JOC Container volume at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust edged up roughly 1 percent year-over-year in January as India’s biggest, public container handler looks to speed up operations following the end of prolonged industrial unrest at the DP World facility in the harbor. The newest port data obtained by JOC.com shows JNPT handled 377,581 twenty-foot-equivalent units in January, up from 373,131 TEUs in the same month last year, but down 1.7 percent from the prior month, when volume reached 384,205 TEUs. By terminal, APM Terminals-operated Gateway Terminals India contributed 162,474 TEUs, down 8.6 percent from 177,658 TEUs during January 2015. DP World’s Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal, which struggled to maintain normal operations last month due to work slowdowns and blockades staged by some employees over demands tied to wage increases and better working conditions, saw its volume tumble 47 percent year-over-year to 51,019 TEUs.

Exclusive: Shipping Min seeks higher Budget funding B TV With mega port connectivity and inland waterways projects coming up, Shipping Ministry has pitched for higher Budget allocation of Rs 5,543 crore for FY17. Sources told Bloomberg TV India that Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari has sought a quantum jump in budget funding—Rs 5,543 crore for FY17 as compared with just Rs 932 crore in FY16. “Shipping Ministry is pursuing major projects. Prime Minister’s ambitious Sagarmala project of connecting all the ports is likely to get Rs 1,000 crore as the national perspective plan for Sagarmala is ready,” an official said. The ministry also plans to start multi-modal hubs at Banaras, Sahibganj and Haldia for easy transportation of goods and services. “Shipping ministry will prioritise spending on inland waterways transport as a lot more needs to be explored in this domain," the official said. The Ministry has sought Rs 2,384 crore for developing inland waterways.

India intermodal firm to become NVOCC JOC Container Corporation of India, a state-owned intermodal operator, is set to jump into the shipping game as a non-vessel operating common carrier as part of a wider effort to diversify its business. The expansion into maritime shipping follows on the company’s 2005 entry into the terminal operator business and the company also has its eyes on setting up logistics parks and terminals outside India. Concor has also been providing third-party logistics services like warehousing, refrigerated cargo storage and movement, and air cargo. “We are keen on getting into shipping...as a non-vessel owning common carrier to start with. That is one of our strategic plans,” V Kalyana Rama, Concor’s director of projects and services who has just been named the company's new chairman and managing director, told IHS Fairplay. “We will have slots on ships. Shipping now is not in good shape. We are in the business of transporting containers, so it is either forward or backward integration.”

East Coast Maritime resurgence Part-III Times of India For all those who are still worried about the economy, especially as seen from armchairs in Delhi and Mumbai, may I suggest that they try to join the dots here too, along the sea-coasts of India, especially the East Coast? #1 The current price of crude oil in dollars is almost the same as the average price of crude oil over the last 30 to 50 years. #2 Container and dry bulk shipping are not doing well, over-capacity tipping point meets reduction in cargo tipping point. #3 Tankers, fishing fleets, coastal ships and efficient ports are doing well all over the world. #4 As farm to fork and factory & shop floor to frequent shopper gets shorter in range and distance, commerce becomes more efficient. #5 There are efficient new ports in India springing up literally overnight and taking business from their older neighbours. #6 More and more major ports are being headed by people from Indian Railways who know the subject of fast evacuation of cargo very well.

Sitharaman discusses growth strategy with export bodies Business Line Exporters from various sectors such as pharmaceuticals, textiles, chemicals, engineering goods, farm products and marine products discussed their specific problems and ways of boosting exports in a meeting with Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister for Commerce and Industry, on Tuesday. Sitharaman said her Ministry will work with various departments including environment, textiles, external affairs and finance to boost exports and also address tax related issues. The 12 export promotion councils (EPCs) attending the meeting also raised the issue of the impact of India-Asean free trade agreement on the country’s exports. Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said that the Centre had already started a review of the FTA. The Centre will also look into the likely impact of GST on exports, she said. The Minister asked representatives of the EPCs to inform the Ministry about “what is not happening and what should ideally happen,” an official release said.

Cochin Port Trust to help evictees affected by projects The Hindu Cochin Port Trust will allot 60-square metre plots on the eastern side of National Highway 47C on lease for a period of 10 years to people, who had been evicted for the connectivity projects for the International Container Transshipment Terminal project. The evictees are the ones who had parted with their land for the connectivity projects and they can use the leased land for directly running bunks and shops. This is a measure of rehabilitation for the people affected by the projects, said Port Trust sources on Tuesday. A total of 67 plots, having approximate size of 5 m X 12 m each, have been earmarked in nine blocks on the eastern side of the National Highway between Bolghatty Junction and the new police station building on Mulavukad island for the purpose. The total extent of the 67 plots identified to be leased comes to approximately an acre.

Like Adani Ports, says Prakash Diwan Money Control Prakash Diwan of prakashdiwan.in told CNBC-TV18, "There is a whole change in environment for the shipping companies and port companies and that has gone quietly unnoticed. I like Adani Ports because it has currently three terminals operating out of Mundra. Container Terminal (CT) is operated by DP World, Container Terminal II is operated by the company itself and CT III is a 50:50 joint venture (JV) between the company and MSE. MSE is a second largest shipping line in the world." "Now they are setting up Container Terminal IV which is also a JV with CBG, it is a consortium. Of course it will take some time, June 2016 is when it is likely to get commissioned. All put together, right now the capacity is 4 billion TEUs and it could go up to about 6.6 once this expansion happens." "Currently, FY'15 utilisation has been about 2.7 million out of the capacity and maybe FY'16 probably will end up being about 3 million.

Ease of doing business: Commerce min to approach other ministries Financial Express The commerce ministry will soon approach various ministries to further improve the ease of doing businesses and the competitiveness of exporters, as it desperately seeks to find ways to boost exports that have contracted for a 13th straight month through December. After a meeting with a dozen-odd export promotion councils (EPCs) that last over two hours, commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman said: “We will follow up with ministries of environment, textiles and finance as well as customs authorities for easing out few more things related to export promotion so that there is an ease of doing business from the exporters point of view.” Issues such as the impact of India-Asean free trade agreement on the country’s exports, non-tariff barriers in other countries, currency volatility, special economic zones, services tax and problems in dealing with customs officials were flagged by the councils, apart from various incentives sought by them.

New U.S. rule a blow to Indian pharma exporters The Hindu In a move that will further inflate prices of drugs in the United States — already a burning issue in the current presidential campaign — the U.S. government has made it mandatory for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) to be manufactured locally. At present, nearly 80 per cent of drug raw material requirement is met by India or China. The decision has already sent Indian pharmaceutical exporters into a tizzy, as it will significantly impact Indian drug exports. Before the new norms came into effect, U.S.-based companies were allowed to procure APIs from countries like India and China, make the fixed formulations (final product) in the U.S. and sell the drugs to the U.S. government. Pharmexcil has approached the Commerce Ministry, requesting authorities to intervene and resolve the issue. The issue comes at a time when Indian API exports have been slowing down.

PM Modi assures Tirupur exporters of action on trade deals with EU, Australia, Canada Economic Times PM Narendra Modi, meeting entrepreneurs from Coimbatore just ahead of a public meeting there, assured them of action on Free Trade Agreement with the European Union. The FTA is a long-standing demand from Tirupur garments makers in their stated target to double their export in three years. Nearly 35% of total ready-made garment exported From India valued $8.56 billion in first six months of 2015-15, went to the EU. "Our main competitor is Bangladesh, which is enjoying a duty-free market status in the EU. We are confident we can dent the market share of Bangladesh if the FTA with EU can be achieved, considering we have many factories with a compliance orientation at our end," A Sakthivel, President of Tirupur Exporters' Association. Sakthivel added that Modi had told them that talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel had been initiated on all prospective trade-related tie-ups and that he will make sure "the government does the needful.

ABS and Cosco sign cooperation agreement on Arctic routes Seatrade Maritime ABS and China Ocean Shipping Company (Cosco) have signed an agreement to cooperate on trans-Arctic voyages through the Northeast passage. The agreement includes development of specialised ice-class vessel types able to navigate the arctic sea route, under a cooperative initiative on Arctic Shipping Technology Development. Use of the Northern Sea Route, which has become navigable for shipping between July and November thanks to climate change and melting sea ice, allows a reduction of nearly 4,000 miles of voyage distance between Asian and European ports. “ABS is excited to work with Cosco to develop this pioneering trading route,” said Eric Kleess, president and coo of ABS Greater China Division, at the signing ceremony in Shanghai.

CMA CGM signs vessel sharing agreement with Iran's IRISL Sea News CMA CGM signed preliminary vessel sharing agreement with Iranian shipping company IRISL, reports Maritime News Journal of Varna, Bulgaria. According to the report, the agreement calls for the joint use of vessels, handling services and co-operation in terminals operations. Following the agreement both companies will cooperate with vessel capacity sharing and joint operating of routes to Iran, which will provide more efficient services and better connectivity. IRISL is Iran's largest shipping cargo carrier and was recently removed from the international sanctions list, opening routes and access to world trade markets. The agreement marks the first deal between an international line and IRISL since sanctions were lifted. "The progressive lifting of sanctions should bring strong growth in trade between Iran and the rest of the world. This agreement opens new opportunities for CMA CGM to expand in this region", said CMA CGM in official statement. Logistics Chennai,International Freight Forwarders in Chennai, Custom Clearance Agents in Chennai , Checkout http://www.jupiterseaair.com