This is a fallout of the emergence of six super ports, two of which will be in Asia, namely Yokohama in Japan and Salala in Oman, in the next five years. These two ports fulfill the necessary criteria to be developed as a super port, according to Shipping Corporation of India, director, SS Rangnekar.He was quoting from a report published by the Korea Maritime Institute, at the release of third edition of the book on Multi-modal transport by Dr. KV Hariharan.

The emergence of super ports will lead to a top layer of few container lines of 40 to 50 ships with a capacity to carry 16,000 to 18,000 TEUs, which will operate between these six ports. The second layer of operations will operate between the super port and the hub port with container ships having a capacity of 10,000 to 12,000 TEUs. The third layer would be meant for feeder operations with a capacity of 4,000 TEUs. As on date, feeder services in India have a capacity of 400 TEUs. Developing countries will be operating the feeder network, Rangnekar said.

The capacity of normal container ships will also go up from 6,000-8,000 TEUs to 12,000-14,000 TEUs and it will move from single screw single engine to twin screw twin engine enabling faster movement, Rangnekar added.

Commenting on the future of the Indian shipping industry, Rangnekar said that though `lacklustre', we need to set international benchmark and not Indian benchmark. Shipping can now be done by emphasising more on service oriented image with timing and networking being very crucial, he said.

Delivering his keynote address, director general of shipping, DT Joseph said that the `pipeline' technology is going to fundamentally impact the shipping industry and the multimodal transport operations as oil and gas are major products transported through the pipeline.