Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday emphasised on the manufacturing on the indigenous high quality containers in India saying that India has excellent steel making capabilities.
Addressing a webinar here at the Container Corporation of India Ltd (CONCOR) on ‘Indigenous Manufacturing of Containers’, Goyal said, “We should be aspiring for a much bigger play in container manufacturing. We have absolutely excellent steel making capabilities, we have an MSME sector with good skills and the frame making capabilities are also good.”
The minister stressed that India’s exports are going to increase significantly, as against the imports. “Government has made a conscious decision to support our shipping sector so more and more of the Indian companies start owning Indian flag vessels,” he said.
Goyal said, there is a lot of buzz and excitement in our manufacturing sector, to meet domestic and international requirements. “We are part of the resilient global supply chain, which are looking at alternate supplies,” he said.
“If India starts manufacturing at scale, we will become cost-competitive to sell to all parts of the world. Scale presents huge cost-benefit opportunities,” he said.Goyal emphasised that if you produce a high-quality product, our neighbours will never be able to match it. And that can be sold in Europe and US.
“If India manufacturers a million containers in a year, we will become cost-competitive,” he said.Goyal said container manufacturing business needed a LIFT, which CONCOR has been able to provide. Elaborating the meaning of LIFT, he said L - efficient logistics, I - depending on indigenous sources, F - futuristic and T - becoming a trendsetter.“We should all collectively take a concrete decision to buy only Indian and support Indian industry, to meet not only India’s needs but the world’s needs. Container shortage and imported container should be dumped into the flames of history,” the minister said.