India to buy more second-hand vessels to raise container capacity

NEW DELHI, Sept 19 (Reuters): India will purchase more second-hand vessels to add to the country's container shipping capacity, two senior shipping officials said on Thursday after talks with multiple ministries to cut transportation costs and increase exports.
Discussions were held after Indian goods exports fell for two consecutive months, with a 9.3 per cent year-on-year fall in August, which traders blamed on rising shipping costs, a slowdown in China and recessionary trends in Europe and the United States.
Addition of new vessels is expected to reduce the time for exports and raise the container capacity by 10 per cent to 12 per cent.