The Adani Group has made its mark in homeland, as well as globally, in the field of port development, and as its latest feat, the port behemoth has joined forces with the world’s largest shipping company, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) to manage container operations at the Vizhinjam Port. MSC and Adani are already working together at India’s Mundra Port.
According to industry sources, the group is poised to set up a JV deal with MSC Group for terminal operations at the port, which stakeholders believe has the potential to emerge as a regional maritime hub, akin to Colombo in Sri Lanka or Singapore.
MSC, with a global presence in 155 countries, boasts a fleet of approximately 700 cargo ships, including some of the world’s largest motherships. Considering that Vizhinjam is being positioned as a vital regional transshipment hub, Adani plans its development capable enough for handling containers coming from MSC’s motherships.
Notably, Adani Group has garnered interest from other prominent international shipping companies like Evergreen Line, CMACGM, OCL, and more to collaborate with Vizhinjam Port. This port is slated to become India’s first semi-automated container terminal, allowing remote control of container movements. Adani Group’s CEO has committed an investment of INR 20,000 crore in Vizhinjam by the year 2030.
Vizhinjam Port has managed to capture quite some attention in the last few weeks, courtesy its 20m draught that enables it to berth large-size containerships, and the close proximity to the busy east-west international shipping axis, said to be within 10 nautical miles and about 175 nautical miles from Colombo. Last week the first set of cranes for the port arrived their destination as China’s Zhen Hua 15 docked at the port. It is expected that full-scale commercial operations will start in or around Q1 24.
