The logistics market in India is estimated to be Rs. 260,000 crores and constitutes 13 % of the GDP.

The trade growth in India is inevitable as it is ranked one among the top five manufacturing outsourcing destinations in the world.

Manufacturing recorded an impressive growth rate of 12.5 per cent during the year 2006-07.

Indian manufacturing export has the potential to touch US$ 300 billion by 2015, growing at an annual rate of 17 per cent as against the historic growth of 11 per cent.

India has 12 major and 184 minor / intermediate ports spread across the vast coastline of 7517km.

In its report, "India Logistics Outlook 2007," Datamonitor predicts that with India's gross domestic profit (GDP) growing at over 9 percent per year and the manufacturing sector enjoying double-digit growth rates, the Indian logistics industry is at an inflection point and will reach a market size of over $125 billion in year 2010.

India's third-party logistics (3PL) market is set to experience a period of explosive organic growth, with high double-digit growth rates for both outsourced and contract logistics in the country.

With increased geographical distribution of incomes and markets in India, and increased competition across industry verticals, firms are focussing on product distribution, and logistics outsourcing is gaining further momentum with this.

According to Datamonitor, outsourced logistics, at just above one-quarter of the entire $90 billion Indian logistics market, is slated to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 16 percent from 2007-10

In the Indian scenario, though there is an impressive growth of container traffic of over 15 per cent per annum over the last five years.