In 2011, NYK Auto Logistics (India) Pvt. Ltd. was awarded a contract by Ford India for RORO terminal services of finished cars at Chennai and Ennore Port, the company said in its press release. Based on the service quality, in 2015, NALI and Ford India extended the scope of services to cover Chennai plant stockyard management and inland transportation from plant to Chennai and Ennore ports. With this new scope of business, NALI can provid complete outbound logistics of finished vehicles for the Ford plant in Chennai. A part of exports from the Ford Chennai plant is also loaded on NYK vessels at Chennai port, extending the supply chain further to overseas dealers.
The partnership with Ford India strengthened further when the scope of services for NALI was expanded to the new Ford plant in Sanand Gujarat. NALI was awarded a contract to provide plant stockyard management services, transportation from Sanand Plant to domestic dealers, and RORO Terminal Services at the NYK Pipavav RORO terminal. NALI is also working with Ford on a proposal to induce a dedicated car carrier trailer fleet to transport cars from Sanand Plant to Pipavav RORO terminal. The terminal at Pipavav is equipped with state -of – the - art PDI facilities where vehicles shall be processed to export readiness condition and loaded on board the RORO vessel by NYK - trained stevedores.
The first NYK vessel, Grand Dahlia, called at Pipavav RORO terminal on August 26 to load a consignment of 1,380 Ford Figo Aspire vehicles and extended the outbound supply chain from Sanand plant to overseas dealers. On arrival at the overseas destination, the NYK Group shall also provide import logistics including RORO terminal services and inland transportation to the dealers.
With the award of the business at Sanand, NALI now provides complete outbound logistics of finished vehicles for both Ford plants in India and NYK Group provides Ford with global supply chain logistics from the plant in India to overseas dealers.