纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英取代中国成为世界工厂印度需要更大更好的港口

The Rishiri Galaxy, a Panamian-flagged tanker one and a half times the length of a football field, sat tethered to the dock on a muggy day at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port on the west coast of India. Freshly arrived from the Persian Gulf, it bore industrial chemicals — raw materials for Indian factories that make pharmaceuticals, auto parts, cosmetics, construction materials and scores of other modern concoctions.

一个闷热的日子，挂巴拿马国旗、船身长157米的液货船Rishiri Galaxy号停靠在印度西海岸尼赫鲁港的码头。这艘船刚从波斯湾开到这里，船上载满了工业化学品，印度的工厂用这些原材料生产药品、汽车零部件、化妆品、建筑材料和其他数十种现代产品。

At a second terminal nearby, overhead cranes plucked shipping containers off another vessel operated by Maersk, the Danish shipping conglomerate, setting them onto the beds of trucks. The trucks would haul this cargo — electronics from South Korea, palm oil from Indonesia, machinery from Europe — to warehouses throughout the world’s most populous country.

在附近的第二个码头，起重机将集装箱从丹麦航运集团马士基运营的另一艘船上吊起，放到大卡车上。卡车将把这些货物——来自韩国的电子产品、来自印度尼西亚的棕榈油、来自欧洲的机械——运往世界上这个人口最多国家的仓库。

Roughly one of every four shipping containers passing through India is loaded or unloaded here, on the docks jutting into the Arabian Sea just south of Mumbai. The flow of containers has roughly tripled over the past two decades, reaching the equivalent of 6.4 million 20-foot boxes last year. Yet by the standards of the world’s largest ports — many of them in China — it remains a small operation.

途径印度的集装箱中有大约25%在尼赫鲁港装卸，这里濒临阿拉伯海，位于孟买以南。港口的集装箱吞吐量已在过去20年里增长了约两倍，去年达到了640万个20英尺集装箱。但从世界最大港口（其中许多在中国）的标准来看，这个港口仍很小。

India is now pursuing an aggressive campaign to catch up, readying plans for new ports while expanding existing docks. Whether those designs come to fruition and how quickly could shape the results of one of India’s grandest aspirations: swelling into a full-fledged manufacturing and export colossus.

印度目前正在采取措施积极赶上，在准备建设新港的同时扩建现有的码头。这些计划能否实现、实现的速度如何，将影响到印度最宏伟的抱负之一：将国家发展为一个成熟的制造业和出口巨头。

That prospect is increasingly imaginable as multinational retailers that have long leaned heavily on factories in China to make their goods seek alternative venues, spooked by trade hostilities between Washington and Beijing and the supply chain disruptions of the pandemic. That effort is intensifying as businesses absorb the expectation that trade relations between the world’s two largest economies will remain unsettled regardless of who wins the U.S. presidential election in November. Many major brands are exploring factories in India.

这一前景已变得越来越有可能实现。由于出于对美中贸易敌对立场的担心，长期以来严重依赖中国工厂生产商品的跨国零售商们在经历了新冠疫情导致的供应链崩溃后，已开始寻找替代渠道。无论谁赢得今年11月的美国总统大选，人们都预期世界两大经济体之间的贸易关系不会改善。随着企业接受这种预期，它们也在加强寻找替代的努力。许多大品牌正为在印度建厂做考察。

“The world doesn’t want total dependence on China,” said Unmesh Sharad Wagh, chairman of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority. “Definitely, the best alternative is India. Now, people are shifting their base to India.”

“世界不想完全依赖中国，”尼赫鲁港港务局主席安梅什·沙拉德·瓦格说。“毫无疑问，印度是最好的替代。现在大家都在将基地转移到印度。”

Major retailers like Walmart are expanding their sights to India. But whether this trend endures, producing a sustained increase in additional factory orders along with critically needed manufacturing jobs, may hinge on whether India’s ports are able to do their part.

沃尔玛等大型零售商正在将目光更多地投向印度。但这个趋势能否持续下去，能否为印度带来工厂订单以及急需的制造业工作岗位的持续增长，可能取决于印度的港口能否尽一份力量。

At the Jawaharlal Nehru Port, in Navi Mumbai, construction crews are doubling the size of one of the five terminals, adding two berths.

在新孟买的尼赫鲁港，施工队正在对五个码头之一进行扩建，为其增加两个泊位，使装卸能力扩大一倍。

The major action is aimed at Vadhvan, an industrial area 100 miles up the coast. There, the port authority is proceeding with plans to construct an enormous facility that will have capacity to move 20 million 20-foot containers per year, roughly triple the size of the existing Navi Mumbai port.

更大的行动将在沿海岸线往北160公里的瓦德万工业区。那里的港务局正在推进建设一个巨型设施的计划，将港口年吞吐量增加到2000万个20英尺集装箱，大约是新孟买港目前能力的三倍。

The project, estimated to cost more than $9 billion, is to be built in two phases, with completion in 2035. It recently gained the approval of India’s cabinet.

这个预计耗资逾90亿美元的项目将分两个阶段建设，于2035年完工。项目最近已获得了印度内阁的批准。

The key to the new port is its deep water, which can accommodate the world’s largest container ships, those large enough to hold as many as 24,000 boxes. The rest of India’s ports can handle ships carrying up to 18,000 containers.

新港口的关键是它的深水区，可以容纳世界上最大的、容量达24000个集装箱的船只。印度其他港口最多可容纳容量为1.8万个集装箱的船舶。

That limitation constrains the flow of trade. Roughly 25 percent of the container cargo between India and Europe or East Asia is routed through ports in Singapore, Dubai or Colombo, Sri Lanka, where their shipments are transferred to and from smaller vessels that are able to dock in India — the equivalent of having to change planes in Chicago or Atlanta, rather than catching a nonstop flight.

这就限制了贸易的流动。在印度与欧洲或东亚之间的集装箱货物中，大约有25%要通过新加坡、迪拜或斯里兰卡科伦坡的港口，在这些港口，货物被转运到能够停泊印度的较小船只上，这相当于必须在芝加哥或亚特兰大转机，而不是乘坐直达航班。

As a result, Indian shippers are spending roughly $200 extra per 20-foot container, and the journeys are taking an additional three days, Mr. Wagh said. A three-day gap in delivery time undermines India’s competitiveness as a place to make goods.

瓦格说，这样一来，印度的航运公司要在每个20英尺集装箱上多花大约200美元，运输时间也增加了三天。三天的交货时间差距削弱了印度作为商品生产地的竞争力。

The Vadhvan port is aimed at reducing such costs and speeding delivery time, Mr. Wagh said. “We should not be depending on the smaller vessels,” he said. “Our port should be ready for our future growth.”

瓦格说，瓦德万港旨在降低此类成本，加快交货时间。“我们不应该依赖较小的船只，”他说。“我们的港口应该为未来的增长做好准备。”

Another port in the southern Indian state of Kerala is being engineered to accommodate the largest container vessels, relying heavily on automation. It recently received its first container ship to test its operations and is expected to open late this year. That facility — delayed for years by the opposition of local communities — is a project of the Adani Group, a central element of the commercial empire amassed by the billionaire magnate Gautam Adani.

印度南部喀拉拉邦的另一个港口在设计上考虑了如何容纳最大的集装箱船，并在很大程度上依赖自动化。该港口最近接收了第一艘集装箱船，以测试运转情况，预计该港将于今年晚些时候投入使用。由于当地社区的反对，该项目被推迟了数年，它是亿万富豪高塔姆·阿达尼建立的商业帝国的核心要素阿达尼集团的项目。

Mr. Adani has long enjoyed close ties with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who in June began his third term. Mr. Modi is a weakened figure after national polls forced his Hindu nationalist party to forge a governing coalition to maintain power, but is expected to continue his drive to spend aggressively on infrastructure.

阿达尼长期以来与总理纳伦德拉·莫迪关系密切，后者于今年6月开始了他的第三个任期。由于在选举中的表现不佳，莫迪的印度教民族主义政党被迫与其它党组建执政联盟以维持权力，莫迪的地位因而有所削弱，但预计他将继续大力投资基础设施建设。

Some argue that the expansions underway are already keeping pace with India’s growing exports.

一些人认为，正在进行的扩张已经跟上了印度出口增长的步伐。

“Port capacity is going up everywhere,” said Shashi Kiran Shetty, founder and chairman of Allcargo Group, one of India’s largest logistics companies. “We probably can handle another 25 or 30 percent increase in demand.”

“各地的港口运力都在上升，”印度最大的物流公司之一Allcargo集团的创始人兼董事长沙希·基兰·谢蒂表示。“我们可能还能应付25%或30%的需求增长。”

He noted the expansion of capacity in recent years at a major container port in Mundra.

他指出，近年来蒙德拉一个主要集装箱港口的运力有所扩大。

Recent months have seen chaos at some ports on India’s west coast, with outbound cargo piling up, as ocean carriers bypass some destinations to focus their vessels on major routes linking East Asia to Europe and North America.

最近几个月，随着航运公司绕过一些目的地，将船只集中在连接东亚与欧洲和北美的主要航线上，印度西海岸的一些港口出现混乱，出港货物堆积如山。

Much of the disruption is the result of ships avoiding the Suez Canal to evade attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen. Ships are instead traveling the long way around Africa. Given the extra distance, shipping companies need extra vessels to maintain weekly schedules. They have diverted some ships that would normally call at Indian ports.

造成这种混乱的主要原因是船只为躲避也门胡塞叛军的袭击而绕开苏伊士运河，转道非洲。由于距离更远，航运公司需要额外的船只来维持每周的计划。他们改变了一些通常停靠印度港口的船只的航向。

Another source of concern is the possibility of dockworker strikes at India’s 12 largest ports amid an impasse in contract negotiations.

另一个令人担忧的问题是，由于合同谈判陷入僵局，印度12个最大港口的码头工人可能会罢工。

In the longer term, those dependent on trade in India call for more aggressive action to deepen the channels at existing ports — a costly and complicated process.

从长远来看，依赖印度贸易的国家呼吁采取更积极的行动，加深现有港口的航道——这是一个成本高昂且复杂的过程。

“Dredging has to be done at Indian ports,” said Dushyant Mulani, chairman of the Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Associations in India, which represents trucking firms, customs brokers and other companies. “China definitely has an edge over India.”

“印度港口必须进行疏浚，”印度货运代理协会联合会主席杜希扬特·穆拉尼说。该协会代表卡车运输公司、报关公司和其他公司。“中国肯定比印度有优势。”

Like port overseers on every shore, Mr. Wagh, who runs the port authority in Navi Mumbai, is frustrated by the parts of his business that he does not control: congested and bumpy highways that slow the movement of cargo, for instance, and a train system that has traditionally prioritized the moving of passengers.

和各地的港口监管者一样，管理新孟买港务局的瓦格对那些自己无能为力的事感到沮丧：比如，拥挤颠簸的高速公路减缓了货物的流动，以及传统上优先考虑乘客运输的火车系统。

Rail authorities are nearing completion of a dedicated rail corridor to move freight between Mumbai and New Delhi. That will allow the double-stacking of containers, while permitting trains to double their speed, effectively quadrupling the system’s capacity.

铁路部门即将完成孟买和新德里之间的货运专用铁路走廊。这将允许集装箱双层堆叠，同时使列车的速度提高一倍，从而将系统的实际容量提高三倍。

The national government is also overseeing the construction of highways.

国家政府还在开展高速公路的建设。

The question is how long those efforts will take to finish, and whether they can keep pace with growing volumes of cargo. The demands will be even greater if India emerges as a viable alternative to industry in China.

问题是这些努力需要多长时间才能完成，以及它们能否跟上不断增长的货运量。如果印度成为中国工业的一个可行的替代选项，需求将会更大。

“Rail and road both have to move faster,” Mr. Wagh said.

“铁路和公路都必须加快速度，”瓦格说。