Dear Friends and Colleagues, As we sail through the currents of time, paraphrasing a recent hindi film song "Apna Time Aagaya", our time has arrived.

We in India can take great pride at the successful soft landing of the Vikram and Pragyan Lander/Rover Combination on the South Pole of the Moon. The only nation to have done so and the only one of the four nations to land a mission on the moon, as well as congratulations to Neeraj Chopra, who won the gold medal in the javelin throw event at the World Championships, and to R Praggnanandhaa, our 19-year-old prodigy, who won the silver medal in the FIDE World Chess Cup 2023. As has been said several times and reiterated by the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, this is India’s century.

Closer to home, though we saw a late onset of the monsoon due to El Nino effect, but, fortunately, by the beginning of August, the average quantum of rainfall was back to normal. We hope that we will close the season with normal average rainfall, and normal agriculture produce.

Climate change and El Nino are causing global challenges, such as draft restrictions in the New Panama Canal, resulting in ships having to discharge up to 1500/2000 containers to seek a safe transit through the canal. This is due to water scarcity in surrounding lakes, affecting the canal and locks. Abnormal events highlight the need to address climate change, global warming, and pollution.

Most parts of the world have seen inflationary trends and rising food prices. This makes it even more critical that we have a normal agricultural crop to keep foodgrain stability. As a preventive action, against price rise, the Government of India has temporarily banned and/or restricted exports of rice and sugar. While such a move may help the domestic market, it does disrupt international trade and India’s reputation as a reliable exporter.

The past three months have seen dramatic changes in the shipping ecosystem. Global trade volumes have taken a dip, additional ships have entered the market. China has slowed down. Bulk carrier rates have dropped, Tanker rates are declining, and Container freight rates are fast sliding down. Some of the smaller container shipping companies have announced losses for the 2nd quarter of 2023. Lease rentals for containers have gone down substantially, and the stocks of empty containers at most locations in the world are increasing. Bottomline is that everyone knew the boom times would not last forever and that low tides will eventually ground a lot of boats.

One of the advantages of this past period has been the development that has happened across almost all geographies in the port sector. Up until the recent past, due to inadequacies in port development in the under- developed world, Indian trade had to use hub ports to ship its EXIM traffic. Due to improved infrastructure, Indian trade now uses direct services between Indian ports and foreign destinations resulting in better transit times, lower costs, and improved handling. The next 12 months are likely to see a high growth in the number of container ships being deployed to India.

Two pillars loom large on the horizon: India’s manufacturing resurgence and infrastructural transformation. The “China Plus” strategy unlocks a realm of possibilities for India:

In forthcoming editions, TIDINGS will seamlessly integrate our regular themes will the tenets of ESG

Business pathways are increasingly getting aligned with this holistic framework. A wave of new ship orders, propelled by cleaner technologies, forecasts a shipping capacity surge of over 10% annually. Ports’ role is evolving - provisioning green electricity (LNG, Methanol and Green Methanol) to visiting ships, fostering ecologically pristine port cities.

At JMBL, as port and terminal operators, it is incumbent upon us to provide green electricity to ships that populate our berths. We have set ourselves a challenging target to achieve this by 2025. The promising journey of JMB Rail joins the mission for greener transport, riding on specialized freight corridors, which use greener energy as compared to road haulage, where fossil fuel is expected to be used for a much longer period

With the war in Russia and Ukraine, China's economic difficulties, inflation, and an increase in capital costs, global dynamics are disrupted, requiring businesses to be debt-averse, thrifty and frugal.

In summation, two constants remain:

The approaching months of 2023 promise revelation for the next few years, however our unchanging values of hard work and honesty will always bear fruits of joy.

Krishna B. Kotak
Chairman - J M BAXI GROUP