Steel Authority of India Limited which mainly uses Haldia, Paradip and Visakhapatnam ports for routing imports and exports is exploring opportunities in other east coast ports such as Gangavaram, Kakinada and Dhamra.
There is a feeling that Haldia, Paradip and Visakhapatnam ports for whatever reasons, may find it difficult to handle the increased volumes of SAIL’s sea-borne traffic projected to materialize in the next few years.
SAIL as sources point out, has started handling coal imports at Gangavaram. Starting August it has handled four coal ships at the port. More is likely. It is also believed to have got a blueprint ready for creating bulk handling facilities at Kakinada port and the tender in this regard is to be floated soon. Finally, the preliminary level talks are understood to have taken place between the authorities of SAIL and Dhamra port for probable use of the port’s facilities, expected to be in place in the second quarter of next year.
However to use Dhamra facilities, according to sources at the port, must take a decision soon. A source pointing out that TATA Steel has already made its position clear in this regard said that “Our capacity is limited and we’ll go by first come first serve basis.”
It will be wrong to presume that the upcoming ports will be free of any problem. New technologies being introduced and new equipment being installed at these ports will take time to stabilize.
The problems facing existing ports too are many. Visakhapatnam port is supposed to cater to the requirement of SAIL’s Bhilai Steel Plant almost exclusively. But that is not happening. In the past few months, the port had to handle coal imports for SAIL’s plants at Rourkela, Bokaro and even far off Durgapur mainly because Paradip was hit by pre-berthing detention problem. This entailed additional transportation cost. But an important point is that due to capacity limitation at Visakhapatnam port, these three plants could be served only at the cost of Bhilai Steel Plant.
(Sourced from http://www.steelguru.com/news/index/2009/10/20/MTE2Njc2/SAIL_plans_to_use_more_ports_to_handle_increasing_coal_imports.html)
Monday, October 19, 2009
SAIL plans to use more ports to handle increasing coal imports
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