India’s box building business gets green light

The next five years could see India’s role in the global container manufacturing sector expand significantly, with up to one million TEU of dry freight containers potentially being produced annually by 2040.

On 28 October, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved India’s Container Manufacturing Promotion Scheme (CMPS) with financial support of INR10,000 crore (US$1.05 billion) up to fiscal year 2039-40. The support and development package for India’s container manufacturing sector was first announced in the Union Budget of 2026-27. It envisages a three-year period for developing new and expanding existing plants and then 10 years to subsidise production.

According to the government, CMPS’s aim is to “establish a globally competitive container manufacturing ecosystem in India, ­reduce import dependence [on containers] and strengthen the country’s supply-chain resilience”. Of course, the scheme should also put the industry in a better and more competitive position to attract orders from international ocean carriers and leasing companies.

Currently, several companies, including APPL, DCM Shriram Group and Braithwaite, are building containers in India, but output is small (under 70,000 TEU a year) and geared to domestic transport operators, including Container Corporation of India, the intermodal operating arm of Indian Railways.

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