The News
India’s cabinet has approved a ₹10,000 crore ($1.05 billion) program to grow the country’s container making about tenfold, to 750,000 TEUs a year.
Most of the money, ₹8,891 crore, pays makers for each box they build to global shipping standards and sell.
China makes an estimated 85% to 95% of the world’s dry freight containers.
The details
The program pays a set amount for every box, and it runs for 13 years. Makers get ₹49,500 (about $520) for a 20-foot container and ₹86,625 (about $910) for a 40-foot one. The program runs from fiscal 2027-28 to fiscal 2039-40: three years to build plants, then 10 years of production support.
New plants must make at least 100,000 TEUs a year. Expansions must add at least 25,000 TEUs.
Makers also get a 3% interest subsidy on term loans and port land at 25% of the usual lease rate.
At least 70% of each box must be made in India, rising to 90% from fiscal 2032-33.
The government expects about 3,000 direct jobs and more than 50,000 indirect jobs in steel, parts and logistics.
The per-box payment is there to offset the higher cost of building a box in India. Indian-made containers cost $700 to $1,000 more than Chinese ones, or 30% to 40% more. That puts the $520 payment on a 20-foot box below the gap. The $910 payment on a 40-foot box comes close to its top.
Corten steel, the weathering steel boxes are made of, is about 60% to 65% of what a container costs to make.
Indian corten can cost 10% to 15% more than Chinese steel, which alone adds $300 to $400 per box.
Specialty weathering steel is well under 1% of India’s 125 million to 130 million tonnes of yearly steel output.
The first buyers are already lined up, led by Maersk. In July, Maersk ordered 1,000 India-made containers from DCM Shriram. The order came after the first box rolled out at the Maersk and CONCOR inland depot in Dadri, near Delhi.
Mediterranean Shipping Co, Adani and logistics group JM Baxi have also said they are willing to buy India-made boxes or join the program.
India’s planned state shipping line could need about 1 million TEUs of boxes in the medium term.
Even at full size, India’s output would be about a third of what one Chinese maker sold in a down year. China International Marine Containers (CIMC), the world’s largest container maker, sold 2.22 million TEUs of dry containers in 2025, down 35%. Its profit fell 93% as factory capacity outgrew the demand to replace old boxes.
CIMC’s refrigerated container sales rose 50% to 208,200 TEUs in the same year.
India’s plants now make about 70,000 TEUs a year, under 1% of global container demand.
Worth noting
The final program is smaller and longer than the one India announced in February. The budget plan aimed for about 1 million TEUs of capacity over 10 years, with the money spent over five. The approved version targets 750,000 TEUs and spreads the same ₹10,000 crore to fiscal 2039-40.
US trade actions on Chinese port equipment have left containers out. The US Trade Representative’s 100% duties on Chinese ship-to-shore cranes and intermodal chassis were suspended for a year. New containers carry no new tariff. USTR has proposed keeping the crane and chassis duties paused until Jan 9.
What’s next
The payments start in fiscal 2027-28, which begins April 1, 2027.
