Shifts in global supply chains and sourcing to benefit India: APM Terminals CEO Keith Svendsen

In an interview to ET, he said inventories had begun to normalise with the easing of the pandemic and restocking should begin by the end of the year. On India plans, he said APM Terminals, part of Maersk Group, plans to invest about ₹3,500 crore in its Pipavav port, but a large part of the proposed capex is subject to extension of the port lease.

Svendsen said the past couple of years have taught the whole world the importance of supply chain resilience and multi-sourcing. “I think that India is very well-positioned to take advantage of that,” he said, adding that as an outsider “it appears that the next period of time could be of India”.

On the state of global supply chains after years of crises from Covid-19 to the Russia-Ukraine war, he said, “So now we’re back to normal… A lot of what is hitting our industry at the moment is really driven by high inventories on the back of Covid that has taken longer than expected to normalise.”

According to Svendsen, the trend could reverse in the second half of this financial year. “We hope that at the end of the year, we’ll start to see restocking happening again,” he said. “Freight will continue to flow again as it always does and then the economic cycle is both natural.”

He said the company is keen to play a role in India’s infrastructure and logistics sectors by investing in projects aimed at lowering logistics costs. This is in line with the priorities of the Centre with high logistics costs being flagged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “As a company involved in both shipping logistics and terminal ports, we would love to play a role in helping to solve some of these problems,” said Svendsen.

Pipavav Port
The APM Terminals CEO said the company is focused on upgrading infrastructure at its port. “We just announced an LPG investment in Pipavav, which is subject to regulatory approvals,” he said, adding that at GTI (located in the Nhava Sheva’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port), the company upgraded infra to ensure that it is able to handle larger vessels.

APM Terminals currently operates a 1.35 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) port in Gujarat.