The Kolkata and Haldia Ports are gearing up to stay in competition with other Non-Major Ports, off the coast of Orissa.
KoPT’s Haldia arm is betting high on the transloading facility it has installed for handling bulk cargo, the Kolkata Port has firmed up plans to invest Rs. 1,650 crore over a period of three years to construct additional berths outside the lock gates.
The berths outside the lock gates will reduce waiting time for the ships, thus saving on the demurrage charges the shippers have to bear.
The Kolkata Port witnessed a 9.8% year- on- year increase in container handling while for Haldia, it was 58.76%. Overall cargo in Haldia, however, increased only 1.93% y-o-y since handling of POL (petroleum, oil and lubricants) dipped -13.67% and coking coal by -6.5%. Haldia handled a total cargo of 32.85 million tonne in FY 17 against 32.22 mt in FY 16. For Kolkata, cargo saw a dip of -5.35% y-o-y, vegetable oil by -25%, other liquids down by -14% and pulses & others by -13%. Coking coal, to some extent, has been diverted to Dhamra and Paradip, Babu said.
KoPT cannot afford to lose a container or any other cargo and therefore it has to give leverage to its inherent strength of large hinterland and faster railway evacuation, for which Haldia still remains attractive to a number of shippers.
For 25,000-tonne vessels, Haldia is still cheaper, the port chairman said, outlining that rail rake availability is very good in Haldia compared to Dhamra or Paradip.
While Haldia has opted for a transloading facility to be able to handle big panamax vessels with the help of daughter vessels, handling charges are crossing Rs.1,000 per tonne. The national average, for handling coking coal, works out to an average of Rs.300 per tonne.
But in Haldia, without transloading, the cost works out be Rs.350 – 400 per tonne since handlers like Ripley levy additional charges of Rs.60-70 per tonne on shippers.[/vc_column_text]
