Container Manufacturing Scheme: Cabinet Clears ₹10,000 Crore Outlay

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday, 28 October, approved a ₹10,000 crore Container Manufacturing Promotion Scheme that aims to lift India’s annual container-making capacity nearly tenfold, to 7.5 lakh twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw briefed reporters after the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to ANI. The scheme runs up to the 2039-40 financial year and is expected to create about 3,000 direct and over 50,000 indirect jobs.

Where the ₹10,000 Crore Goes

The largest block, ₹8,891 crore, is operational expenditure assistance for containers built to global shipping standards. Another ₹859 crore funds a 3 per cent annual interest subvention on eligible term loans, and ₹150 crore is set aside for testing and certification, including common facilities for dynamic longitudinal impact testing, ANI reported.

The government says global container manufacturing is highly concentrated, with about 95 per cent of production in a single country. The scheme is meant to reduce import dependence and make India an export hub for quality containers.

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India Still Imports Nearly 2 Million Empty Containers a Year

The scheme was first announced in the Union Budget on 1 February 2026 as a five-year, ₹10,000 crore plan for a “globally competitive container building ecosystem”, PTI reported. A Press Information Bureau explainer from 11 August says India imports nearly 2 million empty containers every year for domestic demand and repositioning.

Trade press has put the price gap in numbers. The Maritime Gateway reported that India-made containers cost 30 to 40 per cent more than Chinese ones, mainly because of higher material costs and limited production capacity. Domestic production has begun in a small way: on 3 July, Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal unveiled the first India-made export-import shipping container for A.P. Moller–Maersk at the Maersk-CONCOR depot in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, and Maersk ordered 1,000 more from DCM Shriram Group, PIB said.

Guidelines and Applicants Yet to Be Reported

The reports on the Cabinet decision do not say who can apply, when applications open or how the support will be paid out. Those details are expected in the scheme guidelines. For earlier coverage of manufacturing incentives, see the mobile phone PLI figures given by Vaishnaw, and for another Cabinet decision this week, the dearness allowance hike. More stories are in Daily Updates.

Source: PIB explainer on the Container Manufacturing Assistance Scheme. Also based on reporting by ANI and The Maritime Gateway.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.