Role of shipping in overall trade of India

Shipping industry plays an important role in the development of Indian economy. Some 90 % of trade of the country passes through sea lances. The country has one of the largest fleet among the developing countries. Many foreign shipping companies are operated by Indiana. The many foreign ships plying in Indian waters are operated by Indian crew members.

The sea trade is being carried out from western side and eastern side ports of the Indian peninsula. The crude oil and petroleum imports from the west Asian countries are handled by the ports located on the western shore of India. The location of largest oil refinery in the world, on the Gujarat coast ensures that bulk of the oil imports are taken by the ports in the areas. The eastern shore ports are gateway to the look east policy of the country. These ports maintain link with south East Asian country and beyond Japan, china and Korea. There are at least 55 shipping companies in the trading field, out of which 29 sail beyond the sea frontier of Indian and only 19 deals with costal trade. Some companies operate in both domestic and foreign trade. Both government and private shipping companies take part in foreign trade.

Generally the shipping is used for the transportation of bulk cargo, oil, petroleum products and agriculture produce. This is the type of cargo which cannot be transported by any other mode of transport

The Indian shipping corporation over the decades has developed many other facilities besides supporting national and international shipping cargoes. The facilities are, ship repairing, ship building, International Relocation Service in Mumbai light houses facilities, freight forwarding etc. To face the competition from foreign companies in both shipping cargoes and port handling facilities, the Indian shipping corporation with the help provided by government of India, has installation modern cargo loading and unloading machines in major ports on both coasts of Indian.   These modern loading facilities ensure that time of loading is reduced and more and more ships can be served. The coal loading facilities at Vishakhapatnam ports, installed in initial more than a decade ago has considerably reduced coal loading time with improved efficiency.

After the liberalization, International Excess Baggage shipping the government has encouraged private sector to increase investment in shipping and port building operations. Many ports are now being operated by the private companies. The government wants private companies to build and operate new ports along the costal line of Indian to increase the trade and create jobs for growing population .The role of these private companies is increasing in the foreign trade of India   .

Role of seaborne trade in overall trade in India

India has long coast line of more than 7 thousand kilometers, from west to east. This long sea shore makes it the 16^th largest maritime power in the world. The foreign trade of the country moves through ships to different parts of the world. The volume wise about 96 % and value wise about 75 % of trade is done by ships. And this role is going to increase in future. The development of economy is closely linked with the growth of sea trade of a nation .Many foreign companies have Indian seaman operating their ships and containers. 

The government also wants to encourage the growth of shipping industry by give single window clearance to the 100 percent investment in ports and harbor construction and maintenance projects .The government also gives 10 year tax holiday to companies to come and invest in harbor and inland water transport development. The sea trade plays in major role in the prosperity of a nation.

The companies involved in international parcel service take the goods from interior of the country and put them at port for international movement.  The movement to ports is done by road transports. The companies involved in transport of good have their own fleet or they have linked with transporters to help them in parceling service. The international trade in commodities, raw material, vehicles, heavy engineering goods, and agriculture products is conducted through ships. Only few perishable vegetables, horticulture items, and some medicines are transported through air.

The goods are shipped through 12 big ports and 187 non major ports.  The kind of ship, which will be used for the trade, also depends on the nature of product involved in trade. For example, for petroleum products, mostly the chemical tankers are used. These ships have tanker like space for liquid petroleum products. Cargo ships are used for cargo and agriculture products. Containers are used to take containers. Each container may be containing many single items from various parties or companies.

Generally, the International Parcel Service in Kandivali eastern cost is used for trading with south East Asian countries. The west ports are use for petroleum imports from west Asia countries.  The most of the oil importing countries are in the west Asia and separated by only Arabia Sea. The shipping is the only cost effective transport mode to take the energy supply to India.

An important role that shipping trades plays is that it creates job opportunity for millions in direct or indirect form.  The cargo handling at ports is done by freight forward companies, which employ International Movers in Kandivali many people to handle different aspect of cargo handling like import and expert documentations, resupplying the ships with kitchen items, and clearing goods for inland movement to different cities in India.  At every stage in delivery of cargo from a port to a door many persons are involved and all of them depend on sea trade directly or indirectly.