INTTRA business booming in India

Online cargo booking portal INTTRA said Sunday it has seen a tripling of container volumes through India booked through its Web site.



New Jersey-based INTTRA said that as a result of the booming business, it has added five staff members to the previous two at its expanded Mumbai office.



INTTRA Vice President, Commercial John DeBenedette said India is the company's fastest-growing territory and ranks third in overall bookings, only behind China and Brazil.



The opportunity for e-business growth is tremendous given the alignment of trade, talent and a tech-savvy business community, he said in a statement.



Ramcy Castelino, INTTRA general manager for South Asia, who also joined the Mumbai office last year, reports that growth for INTTRA has been extremely strong throughout South Asia in 2007, with all indications that 2008 will be another banner year for INTTRA and its customers.



From 155,000 Indian containers processed in 2006, Castelino said figures more than tripled to a little more than 525,000 in 2007.



For India, as a country, we expect volumes in 2008 to just about double to 900,000 containers processed, he said, adding that INTTRA expects to hit the 1 million container mark for the entire region in 2008. That's up from about 600,000 containers processed throughout the Indian Subcontinent in 2007, he added. Castelino said INTTRA's expansion in India and the region, at large, is due to the phenomenal growth of the Indian economy. From April 2007 to March 2008, the Indian government is forecasting the country's GDP to grow 8.7 percent, with Indian exports during this same period expected to reach $160 billion.



Though Castelino said there would be marginal slowdowns in terms of volume to the United States in the latter part of 2007, volumes continue to be strong to Europe and the Asia Pacific. In fact, if I look at the first two quarters of 2008 I see the same pattern as the last two quarters of 2007.

Source: American Shipper