From importer of boxes to exporter of boxes: why the ₹10,000 crore container scheme must succeed
A humble steel box, a strategic gap
Every exporter in India has, at some point, been told that the cargo is ready but the container is not. The steel box that carries the bulk of our manufactured trade is so ordinary that we rarely think about it. Yet India makes only a sliver of the containers it uses, and imports the rest, overwhelmingly from China.
The Union Budget 2026–27 finally addressed this blind spot. The Finance Minister announced a Container Manufacturing Assistance Scheme (CMAS), referred to by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways as the Container Manufacturing Promotion Scheme, with an outlay of ₹10,000 crore over five years. Its stated aim is to build a globally competitive container manufacturing ecosystem in India.
Having spent a career in Customs and, since then, advising traders on the practical realities of EXIM, I believe this scheme deserves far more attention than it has received. It is not merely an industrial subsidy. It is an investment in the reliability of India's trade itself. And if it is executed well, India should aim not just to meet its own needs, but to become an exporter of containers within this decade.
Trade is growing; so is the demand for boxes
India's external trade has reached a scale where container availability is no longer a logistics detail but a macroeconomic variable. According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India's total exports of goods and services reached a record US$ 863.1 billion in 2025–26, of which merchandise exports were US$ 441.8 billion. Total imports were estimated at about US$ 979 billion. The Commerce Minister has now set the sights on US$ 1 trillion of exports in 2026–27.
Much of the merchandise side of this trade moves in containers. UNCTAD estimates that about 80% of world merchandise trade by volume travels by sea, and containerised cargo accounts for nearly two-thirds of the value of international trade.
Our ports tell the same story:
| Indicator | Figure |
|---|
| Total exports, goods + services, FY 2025–26 | US$ 863.1 billion (record) |
| Merchandise exports, FY 2025–26 | US$ 441.8 billion |
| Cargo at major ports, FY 2025–26 | 915.17 million tonnes (+7.06%) |
| JNPA container traffic, FY 2025–26 | 8.17 million TEU (+11.94%) |
| India's total container throughput, calendar 2025 | about 25.9 million TEU |
| Empty containers imported by India every year | nearly 2 million |
JNPA, our largest container gateway, grew container volumes by almost 12% in FY 2025–26 and by over 14% in April–July 2026. New capacity is coming up at Vadhavan, Vizhinjam, Galathea Bay and Tuticorin's Outer Harbour. Containerisation of Indian cargo is rising, and every additional TEU of port capacity is meaningless if the box to fill it is not available when the exporter needs it.
The most telling figure in that table is the last one. As per the Government's own note on the scheme, India imports nearly two million empty containers every year to meet domestic demand and for repositioning. This is the structural weakness the scheme sets out to fix.
One country, one supplier, one point of failure
The global container manufacturing industry is concentrated to a degree rarely seen in any other sector. Industry estimates put China's share of global container production at 85–97%. CIMC alone is reported to hold around 40% of the market, with Singamas, COSCO-linked units and CXIC making up much of the rest.
India's position is the mirror image. The Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) estimates that India produces between 10,000 and 30,000 containers a year, against China's 2.5 to 3 million, less than 1% of the global market. Container ownership is no better: the global fleet is controlled by the large shipping lines and leasing companies, and India's share is negligible.
We have already seen what this means in practice. During the pandemic, when global trade rebounded faster than anyone expected, China prioritised its own exporters. Indian shippers faced acute shortages of empty boxes, sharp spikes in freight and equipment charges, and missed delivery windows. MSME exporters, who lack long-term contracts with lines, suffered the most.
The risk has not gone away. Diversions around the Red Sea, tensions in the Gulf and the US–China trade conflict continue to create volatility in freight and equipment availability. GTRI has repeatedly warned that higher freight costs, container shortages and India's dependence on foreign carriers and hubs are a serious threat to exports. A country aiming for a trillion dollars of exports cannot leave a critical piece of its trade infrastructure in the hands of a single foreign supplier.
What the ₹10,000 crore scheme offers
The scheme targets an annual domestic manufacturing capacity of up to 7.5 lakh TEU, roughly ten times the existing capacity. According to the Press Information Bureau's note of August 2026, it provides:
- capital assistance for new greenfield manufacturing facilities;
- support for expansion of existing brownfield units;
- operational support to make domestic manufacturing cost-competitive; and
- support for testing infrastructure, skilling and capacity building.
The Shipping Minister has indicated that the scheme could attract investment of about ₹1 trillion and generate a market value of ₹1.07–1.1 lakh crore, roughly eight times the budgetary outlay. It is expected to create about 3,000 direct jobs and more than 50,000 indirect jobs in steel, corner castings, wooden flooring, coatings, depots and trucking.
Crucially, the scheme does not stand alone. In February 2026, the Ministry signed an MoU to set up the Bharat Container Shipping Line (BCSL), bringing together SCI, CONCOR, JNPA, VOC Port and Sagarmala Finance Corporation. The PIB note places BCSL's planned investment at around ₹99,149 crore for 51 container vessels and domestic container procurement. A national carrier that buys Indian boxes gives the new factories something every manufacturer needs: an assured anchor customer.
The early signs are encouraging. In July 2026, the first India-made EXIM container built to ISO and CSC standards for A.P. Moller–Maersk was unveiled at the Maersk–CONCOR ICD in Dadri. Maersk followed this with an order for 1,000 containers from DCM Shriram. MSC, Tata-group's Artsons, Adani and J M Baxi have reportedly signalled willingness to source India-made boxes.
Why Indian-made containers matter
Supply security for exporters. A domestic manufacturing base means containers can be built close to where cargo originates, in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu or the NCR, instead of being shipped empty from East Asia. In a crisis, Indian factories will serve Indian shippers first, just as Chinese factories served theirs.
Lower logistics costs. Every empty container repositioned into India carries freight, handling and detention costs that are ultimately loaded onto the exporter's freight bill. Reducing the two-million-box empty import burden directly improves the landed competitiveness of Indian goods.
Foreign exchange savings. Container imports are a recurring outgo. Substituting even a part of them with domestic production saves foreign exchange and keeps value addition (steel, castings, paint, timber, labour) within India.
A complete maritime ecosystem. Containers are the missing link between the ₹70,000 crore shipbuilding package, the new national carrier, record port volumes and the multimodal network being built under PM Gati Shakti and the National Logistics Policy. Ships without boxes, like ports without boxes, cannot carry trade.
Jobs and MSME linkages. Container manufacturing is labour-intensive and pulls in a wide base of small suppliers. It is precisely the kind of industry that can absorb semi-skilled labour in coastal and inland industrial clusters.
From importer to exporter: the real ambition
Self-sufficiency is the floor, not the ceiling. The Shipping Minister has said the capacity envisaged under the scheme would be equivalent to about a tenth of global demand. That is far more than India alone will absorb, and it points to the right goal: India as a second source of containers for the world.
The opportunity is real. Global container port traffic crossed one billion TEU for the first time in 2025. Global lines and lessors, wary of single-country concentration after the pandemic and amid US–China frictions, are actively looking for a "China-plus-one" for equipment, just as they did for electronics and textiles. India, sitting on the East–West trade lane with growing transhipment hubs such as Vizhinjam, is well placed to supply the Gulf, Africa, South-East Asia and Europe.
But we must be honest about the gap. Industry executives estimate that Indian-made containers currently cost 30–40% more than Chinese ones because of higher input costs and limited scale. Three bottlenecks stand out:
- Steel. Containers are built from Corten (weathering) steel, which India does not yet produce in meaningful quantities of the required grade. Manufacturers often import it, sometimes from China itself.
- Components. Corner castings, door gear and container-grade flooring need domestic suppliers at scale; today much of this is imported.
- Scale and certification. Chinese plants run at volumes Indian factories have never seen. Certification and testing costs per box are also higher in India.
The scheme's operational support can bridge part of this gap in the early years. Lasting competitiveness, however, will come only from scale, an indigenous steel and component base, and efficient logistics to and from factories.
What it will take: a practitioner's agenda
- Notify the guidelines quickly and clearly. Investors need certainty on eligibility, the quantum of capital and operational support, and the disbursement timeline. Delay is the enemy of any incentive scheme.
- Build the Corten steel and component base. Coordinate with the Ministry of Steel and the PLI for specialty steel so that container-grade steel, corner castings and flooring are made in India at competitive prices.
- Create assured demand. BCSL, CONCOR, Indian Railways and port-linked entities should commit to multi-year procurement of Indian boxes. Global lines and lessors that source from India could be recognised through port or terminal benefits.
- Rationalise duties and procedures. Inverted duty structures on inputs must be corrected. Customs procedures for imported inputs, export of finished containers and temporary admission of containers should be simple and fast, an area where the One Nation One Port Process and the Maritime Single Window can help.
- Cluster near ports and steel. Locate plants in clusters close to ports, steel plants and rail-linked ICDs, so that new boxes enter service without long empty runs.
- Treat exports as a target from day one. Push for early ISO/CSC certification, international classification society approvals and participation in global leasing pools. Export performance, not just domestic supply, should be one of the measures of the scheme's success.
- Expand testing and skilling. Accredited testing labs and welding and fabrication skill programmes in manufacturing clusters will cut certification costs and improve quality.
Conclusion: build the box, own the trade
India has spent the last decade building ports, corridors and trade agreements. It is now building ships and a national container line. The container is the last, and in some ways the most basic, piece of that chain.
The ₹10,000 crore scheme is modest by the standards of our infrastructure spending, but its leverage is large. If it attracts the investment projected and is backed by steel, assured demand and smart trade facilitation, India can move from importing two million empty boxes a year to supplying a meaningful share of the world's containers. The first Maersk box rolled out at Dadri shows it can be done. The task now is to do it at scale, at a competitive price, and with the export market in mind from the start.
The day an Indian exporter no longer waits for a box from abroad, and a foreign buyer's cargo leaves another country in a container stamped "Made in India", we will know the scheme has worked.
