Container shipping has always been confronted  with a serious problem which could never be easily resolved. This problem was the "re-positioning of empties". All ship-owners and ship-operators love a two-way trade where they can steam their vessels with laden cargoes on both legs - outward leg and inward leg. For a bulk shipping operator this may not be a very critical problem as his only concern is the extra fuel and time that will go in steaming to the next loading port. However for a container operator the issue is different. For a container operator, the thought of leaving his "container" at a particular port till the time it is de-stuffed and returned is a matter of serious concern. Even if he does not get any return cargoes to bring the container in a laden condition he still has to find methods of getting his empty containers back to a safe and appropriate location with a viable method at a minimum cost.

Container operators had different methods of re-positioning empties. One method was to inbuilt the return freight into the ocean freight on the outward leg itself. This method did not work in all locations. It would possibly work for containers moving into West African locations or probably Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan etc where there were few services. It never worked in other locations. The problem would become acute in major consumer and transshipment locations like Dubai, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc where empty containers would pile up. Then container operators were willing to give it to anyone who could carry out a "free -repo" to the location of the container operators choice. Under this system large amounts of cargoes were moving "freight - free" from North Europe to far Eastern ports.

For a container operator, the thought of leaving his "container" at a particular port till the time it is de-stuffed and returned is a matter of serious concern. Even if he does not get any cargoes he still has to find a viable method to get his empty back.


What is happening today? With recession hitting container shipping trades, there are no cargoes available to fill such empty containers lying in various locations of the world. And each passing day results in an added cost of "ground rent" which in foreign locations could be anything in the region of $20 to $30 per day per TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit - a term for a standard 20-feet container). Now, container shipping lines are desperately moving all empty containers from various nearby regions into Indian locations where the cost of storing a container is just Rs 10 per teu per day. In view of such cheap storing costs nearly all the "empty container yards" in and around Kandla, Mundra, Nhava Sheva, Chennai and Cochin have filled up. The recession in shipping has suddenly proved a blessing in disguise to the these empty-yard operators who are putting up their "Parking Full" signs making way for new entrants with empty open plots of land to join in this business. But there is a problem here. As per the Indian Customs notification, any foreign (duty free) container landing in India should be "re-exported" out within 6 months of its landing in India. In order to assist the trade it is important that the Customs now amend this notification and extend this permission from six months to 12 months at a time when the entire container trade is reeling under a crisis. This will not only help container shipping but also help Indian companies to earn small revenues to tide over this recessionary period.