Insight · 2 min read

Closer Than It Looks

India sits nearer to Europe than China does, by sea and by the clock.

Jinay ShahManaging Partner, Parshwa Plastics

Look at a globe and India can seem a long way from anywhere you'd buy from. But ships don't sail across globes. They sail along routes, and the route from Mumbai to Europe is shorter than most people guess.

Two-fifths fewer miles to Rotterdam

Sea distance to Rotterdam

Shanghai10,600About 27 days at 16 knots, before port calls

Mumbai6,400Nhava Sheva port; about 17 days at 16 knots, before port calls

Nautical miles through the Suez Canal, port to port; Mumbai means Nhava Sheva, its main container port. Actual sailing times depend on the route and port calls. Sources: Port Economics, Management and Policy; sea-route distance calculators.

A container leaving Mumbai for Rotterdam travels about 6,400 nautical miles. From Shanghai, it's about 10,600. To New York the two are roughly level: about five to six weeks at sea from either.

The hours that matter more than miles

Distance isn't only miles. It's the hours between a question and its answer.

Working hours shared with Europe

Frankfurt4.5 h2 h

London3.5 h1 h

IndiaChina

Hours a 9:00–17:00 working day overlaps, European summer time; in winter, both lose an hour. Mumbai is UTC+5:30, Shanghai UTC+8.

A buyer in Frankfurt shares four and a half working hours a day with India, and two with China. In London it's three and a half against one. That's the difference between a same-day answer and a next-day one.

And North America?

Working hours shared with New York

India0 hNo overlap with a 9:00–17:00 Eastern day

China0 hNo overlap with a 9:00–17:00 Eastern day

Our Ottawa office8 h, your full dayCommercial contact on Eastern Time

Hours a 9:00–17:00 Eastern working day overlaps. Our commercial contact works from Ottawa, on Eastern Time.

Neither India nor China shares a single working hour with New York. That's why our commercial contact works from Ottawa, on your clock, while the factory works on your question overnight.

Closer still

Time zones are one kind of distance. Miles are another. So we've built a growing team of experienced sales partners across the US, Mexico and Europe, people who can sit across the table from you, look at the part in your hand and talk it through on your hours.