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Indian policymakers are making ambitious investment efforts in the maritime sector amid strong economic indicators and anticipated trade diversification green shoots.
A five-day big-ticket industry event – India Maritime Week 2025 – launched today in Mumbai, aiming to attract some $80bn in investment across verticals including ports, shipbuilding, logistics, green shipping and inland waterways.
“We are working to transform our ports, shipping, and logistics ecosystem into one that is resilient, sustainable, and future-ready,” said Sarbananda Sonowal, India’s union minister for ports, shipping and waterways.
“This opens vast avenues for international collaborations,” he claimed.
Several global shipping and logistics conglomerates are known to have committed to collaborations in a bid to expand their operations in India, including Maersk, MSC and DP World among those scheduled to enter provisional agreements with Indian authorities at the event.
Vessel reflagging and shipbuilding have become the two key newfound interest areas for mega-carriers, with CMA CGM having taken the lead, ordering six 1,700 teu new ships from Cochin Shipyard.
“The group is actively investing across the Indian maritime value chain, spanning strategic terminals, maritime services and shipbuilding, while also reflagging vessels under the Indian registry,” the French liner said. “India represents a strategic market, holding a pivotal position within the group’s global agency network.”
Other liner heavyweights are catching up. Maersk this month reflagged two smaller containerships to the Indian registry, and there are indicators that the Danish carrier has lined up investment announcements during the maritime summit.
DP World is also eyeing investment opportunities, with a memorandum of understanding in the offing, according to sources.
Local industry leaders appear upbeat about the investment potential of the event. Vipin Kumar Saxena, CEO of Swan Defence and Heavy Industries, said: “As India charts its course to become a global shipbuilding hub, the focus shifts from simple capacity expansion to deep capability creation.
“The government’s recent stimulus provides the perfect tailwind for this transformation.”
Swan (originally Pipavav Yard), India’s largest private shipbuilding yard, recently set up a strategic partnership with South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries to jointly pursue commercial shipbuilding and heavy engineering projects in India and other markets.
Maritime development holds considerable significance for India, as more than 90% of its export/import trade moves by sea. The country has 12 government-controlled landlord ports and more than 200 minor gateways under the control of various state authorities.
India’s ports had historically lagged behind global peers for decades in efficiency and capacity, but there have been significant improvements in recent years, thanks to infrastructure upgrades, policy reforms and digitisation.
Cargo volumes through state ports grew from 581 million tonnes in fiscal year 2014-15 to some 855m tonnes in 2024-25, growing at a CAGR of 4%, according to available data.
Additionally, the average time taken by a ship to turn around at Indian ports fell from 96 hours to 49.5, competing well with global hubs, it is claimed.
Despite the steady port-side improvements, supply chain stakeholders have concerns about bottlenecks and delays in moving cargo to and from hinterlands and to overcome inland challenges, integrated multimodal logistics solutions are gaining steam.
“This [multimodal ecosystem] not only reduces transit times and logistics costs, but also helps decongest infrastructure and improve last-mile connectivity,” said Ketan Kulkarni, MD and CEO of Gati Express.
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