MUMBAI, July 5 -- The world's second-largest container line is not yet ready to build its big ships in India. It is, however, ready to find out if India is ready for the small ones.

A.P. Moller-Maersk has opened talks with Cochin Shipyard Limited and L&T Shipbuilding for the construction of tugs and feeder container vessels, alongside a fresh order for 1,000 indigenously built EXIM containers, according to people familiar with the discussions. It is a modest order by the standards of a company that operates more than 700 vessels globally. It is also, in the calculus of India's shipbuilding ambitions, the kind of order that matters more than its size suggests.

Small vessels are where shipbuilding relationships get tested before they get ...