Inder Khokhar is founder and owner of AMS Container our Newest Premier Vendor

As used machinery becomes an increasingly international business, the need grows for
associates who can confidently navigate unfamiliar waters. New Jersey’s AMS Container Line,
Inc., is one of those businesses, and one of the MDNA’s newest premier vendors.
 
Inder Khokhar is founder and owner of AMS Container, headquartered in East Windsor, just off
the New Jersey Turnpike about midway between New York City and Philadelphia. From his
office, he oversees freight forwarding in and out of major American seaports and airports, as
well as surface transport. He specializes in moving used machinery — most of it by ship — to
customers both foreign and domestic.
 
“Our core business is international shipping,” Inder explained in a recent interview. “We do
export a lot of used machinery— especially to Japan, India, and Bangladesh, and also a few
shipments to Europe. We can also provide short-term warehousing at multiple locations in the
U.S. if it is some machinery we need to pick up inland and get it to New York, we can bring it to the yard and load the containers there. We are a general domestic company for international
shipping, and we also do domestic trucking. We outsource the trucking and have a brokerage
license.”
 
Customs is a key consideration for customers, and Inder’s team knows those ropes well. AMS is licensed by the Federal Maritime Commission as a Non-Vessel Operating Common Carrier,
which Inder calls “a premier certification to handle sea freight into and exports out of the
U.S., where we can issue our own bill of lading.
 
“Customs are very regulated as those regulations are very, very straightforward,” he continued.
“Nobody can expedite Customs. If they say they can it’s probably just a sales pitch. With
customs, it is right or wrong — no gray areas. There are terrorism concerns, for instance, I’ve
had somebody stuck with some machines that are very old, but which could be modified to
make something dangerous. Customs held it to make sure that it is not going to some country
where they can start producing barrels for guns and things like that.”
 
Inder has been in the shipping business since he was a 19-year-old college student in his
hometown of Delhi, India.
 
“I joined a company that wanted to have a U.S. office and that’s how I migrated to New Jersey
in 2002,” he recalled. “At that time, we were primarily looking at Indian subcontinent business,
and New Jersey/New York was one of the biggest gateways. So I made my base here and in
2008, I started this company on my own.”
 
AMS operates from the East Windsor offices and a warehouse in nearby Linden. N.J., near
New York City.
 
As Inder began attending sale events in the New York area seeking export prospects, he
became acquainted with MDNA-affiliated machinery dealers. Those associations led to eventual sponsorships for AMS as an MDNA premier vendor.
 
“We’re blessed to have established a business in the U.S.A” Inder said of his business as he
enters his third decade on the U.S. scene. “It’s the American dream.”

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Inder Khokar