Ocean Freight to India
Ocean freight shipping to India
India has become the new flagship of the emerging countries, after overtaking China in the forecasts for economic growth. Its transition to a free market economy and the progressive increase in the purchasing power of a highly qualified middle class have contributed to stimulate greatly the ocean freight to India.
Besides, the recent measures to control deficit and inflation, as well as domestic and foreign investment in infrastructure and services, inspire great confidence to investors worldwide. The ocean freight to India has become a key option for any export strategy.
FCL or LCL for your ocean freight to India
In order to insure you take the maximum advantage of your booking of ocean freight to India, we suggest choosing carefully between a Full Container Load (FCL) or a Less than a Container Load (LCL) - Groupage.
FCL means that you will have a container exclusively for your cargo shipping. It is especially suitable in case you have to ship more than 14 or 28 cubic meters and you are able to fill more than half of a container. The maximum capacity of the standard 20 or 40-foot container is 30 and 60 cubic meters respectively. Another way to measure the capacity is by pallets: a 20-foot container holds 10 standard American pallets, and a 40-foot container holds up to 21 of this type, with the following dimensions: 39.37 in. wide and 47.24 in. long.
When your cargo fills more than half of a container, it starts being cost-effective; then consider that your cargo won’t share the container with other companies’ products, and the decision is even clearer.
By booking an LCL shipping when filling less than half of the container, you will get the lowest possible price when sending cargo to India. Nevertheless, you will probably want to prevent your cargo from being exposed to other traders’ products; in that case, FCL will be your best choice.
However, if your cargo volume can’t fill up half of a container and you are not concerned for sharing the container, we suggest choosing “groupage”; you will share the container with other traders, but you will pay only for the space used by your cargo.
Ocean freight ports in India
The 100 million people making up the Indian middle class constitute a growing domestic demand, which has a more increasing influence in the more than 320000 million dollars of goods imported by the country. For the Indian part, more than 200000 million dollars are exported as petroleum products, gemstones, iron, steel, machinery, clothes, vehicles, etc. Such traffic requests a powerful port network, with more than twenty first-order seaports.
Port of Nhava Sheva
This container seaport -also known as Jawaharlal Nehru Port- is located east of Mumbay and is managed by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, a government entity. It is currently the largest seaport in India and heirs the legacy of the Port of Mumbai; its length is 680 meters and has three berths, handling more than 10 million TEUs per year, 55.81% of all the Indian traffic.
→ Ship container to Nhava Sheva
Port of Calcutta
The fluvial Port of Calcutta is the oldest in India and is located 203 kilometers away from the sea, on the banks of the city of the same name. It has two different quays: Kolkata (Calcutta) and the deepwater quay of Haldia Dock. It is managed by the Kolkata Port Trust and is among the three largest seaports in India for the handling of containers, iron, fertilizers and raw materials for fertilizers, with the largest dry dock in India.
Port of Mundra
The Port of Mundra is currently known as APSEZ, as it is made up by Port Adanis and the Special Economic Zone Limited -SEZ-. Located on the west coast of India, it has six terminals for containers, liquid bulks, Ro-Ro and petroleum, and a future terminal for handling liquefied gas.
Chennai Port
Formerly known as the Port of Madras, the Port of Chennai is the second largest commercial seaport in India, aspiring to become a hub on the east coast of India. Besides being a stop for cruises, it has three container terminals and its own rail facilities to service more than 60 million annual tons of cargo that run through its premises.
Our ocean freight services to India
We offer affordable and efficient ocean freight services to India from a wide range of ports all over the world. These include ports located in:
- USA
- Spain
- Netherlands
- Germany
- Belgium
- Mexico
- Dominican Republic
- China
- Taiwan
- UAE
What our ocean freight rates to India include
For more information, consult ship container rates for your ocean freight to India here.
