Rapiscan Partakes in Trade Mission to India

February 21, 2012

Namaste! I am here in Chennai India as part of the first ever U.S. Government Port and Maritime Trade Mission to India. We leave Chennai tonight after two days of meetings and fly to Ahmedabad. After a day in Gudjarat we end our trip with two days in Mumbai. Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, Francisco Sanchez, is leading our delegation of 12 companies and is focused on bringing U.S, technology to India’s growing ports. We will meet with the 13 major port directors as well has numerous Indian government officials. Just this morning, Sanjeev Mehta, Rapiscan’s Executive Vice President in India and I had a great session with the Minister of Shipping and the port directors of the five largest ports in southern India.
India is strategically located in the middle of the major ocean shipping routes between Africa, the Middle East and Asia. India’s ports are rushing to build capacity to handle the tremendous amount of cargo entering and leaving India. In fact, nine million shipping containers pass through India every year and that amount is growing at 25% annually. Currently there are only two cargo scanning systems in India (Rapiscan’s Eagle Fixed Site and a GaRDS Mobile) for all these containers. The opportunity for Rapiscan is huge to say the least.
Being part of this U.S. Government lead trade mission has provided Rapiscan with valuable access to key Indian government officials, port directors and shipping companies. We are building on the great success of our participation in the recent U.S. – India Aviation Investment Mission led by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Rapiscan has clearly benefitted from our participation in these events. As I travel through India, I have seen our systems in operation at the Chennai airport, at the entrances of our hotels and at the largest port in India. Clearly Rapiscan already has a strong presence in India and the potential for growth is tremendous