Category Archives: Shipping

India has urged Bangladesh to use Kolkata and Haldia ports for transhipment purposes. The initiative will reduce coastal shipping rates and boost bilateral trade, thereby shifting cargo from the costly land route, and create an opportunity for Bangladeshi garment exporters to reach European and American markets avoiding congestion at the Chittagong port. The proposal was reiterated at a ministerial meeting in Dhaka recently. Indian customs authorities have already cleared the deck for Bangladesh to use Haldia as a transhipment port. However, Bangladesh is yet to approve the same. At the crux of the proposal is the growing need to augment handling capacities on either side, keeping in tune with growing trade volumes.

Union Minister & Minister of Water Resources and Ganga Rejuvenation, Nitin Gadkari has informed that The National Waterway 1 on river Ganga is expected to see 21.89 million tonnes (MT) of cargo traffic in the next two to three years. “This will be on the back of government measures to promote inland water transport in the country,” he said. Besides, 13 standardised state-of-the-art ship designs have been drawn as part of efforts to boost river transport and remove any ambiguity on vessel sizes that can sail on Ganga, he added. “We have taken a slew of steps to promote inland water transport, which has been neglected so far. A study has projected traffic at 21.89 MT on National Waterway 1 (NW-1) by 2021,” Gadkari said. The cargo traffic on NW-1 was 5.5 MT in 2017-18. Currently, various projects underway on NW 1 have the terminal capacity of 13.62 MT and these include Varanasi, Haldia and Sahebganj multi-modal hubs, the minister further said. With the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) coming up with 13 vessel designs, this move would serve as an enabler for domestic shipbuilding industry working on inland vessels and open huge possibilities for cargo and passenger movement on NW-1. Source: PTI

To review the overall development of JNPT and cull out solutions to the challenges and create seamless facilities for the stakeholders, Sanjay Bandopadhyay, IAS, Add. Secretary, Ministry of Shipping (MOS), visited the port arena and held discussions with the JNPT chairman and other senior officials. The ministry is keen to focus on expansion of JNPT and development of various infrastructure projects such as SEZ, dry ports, road connectivity and harnessing modern technology to create positive environment for the trade. MOS is also concentrating on digitisation which can help Indian ports to be at par with the international markets.

Maersk Line has announced the deployment of Electronic Cargo Tracking System (ECTS) to enable paperless trade between India and Nepal. Steve Felder, Managing Director, Maersk Line (India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives), said, “This is a continuation of Maersk line’s focus on digitisation to enable paperless trade across the globe. Addressing our customer needs is paramount and this system will tremendously aid in this process. We will continue to focus on creating a climate of ease of doing business to ensure seamless trade in the region through our integrated logistical offerings.” ML is the first liner to adopt this paperless mode of trade facilitated by Asian Development Bank and Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) against the conventional one-time bottle seal. This is also the first time it has been at done at Indian port transshipping to other countries such as Nepal thus getting rid of documentation hurdles.

With port modernisation and expansion of capacities urging to meet emerging demand, it is essential that the port management and port staff are equipped with latest knowledge and technical advances for meeting the new challenges. JNPT organised a seminar on ‘Dredging Strategy and Technology for Ports’ at JNPT Antwerp Port Training and Consultancy Foundation Training centre. Officials from Mumbai Port, V.O. Chidambaranar, Visakhapatnam, Kolkata, Haldia Dock Complex, Paradip, JNPT, Cochin, Chennai, Deendayal Port took part in the five days seminar. Stefaan Jozef Ides, a trainer from Belgian Port, conducted the training workshop. The aim of the workshop was to take an overview of the modern dredging techniques and their application to create new port infrastructure and maintain port access using the best available dredging technologies and strategies.

Maersk Line has successfully moved the largest ever break-bulk cargo at 103 ft in length and weighing over 16 tonnes from Krishnapatnam to Tianjin, China. The break-bulk cargo consisting of windmill blade was moved on its weekly service, Chennai Express, using 13 flat racks. The delicate shipment of windmill blade, meant for wind farms, was a time bound cargo and had to be loaded on to an earliest available vessel. Steve Felder, Managing Director, Maersk Line (India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives), said, “There was seamless co-ordination between our team, the customer and the terminal operator to overcome infrastructure challenges and help deliver this delicate and expensive cargo to China.”

The government has done away with licensing requirement for ships chartered by citizens of India or a company incorporated in India or a cooperative society registered in India for transportation of EXIM containers for transshipment purposes. Welcoming the decision, Maersk has said that it will bring greater competition to the feeder market. Julian Bevis, Senior Director, Group Relations, Maersk South Asia, said, “The announcement made by the Ministry of Shipping to relax the Indian cabotage law enables global shipping lines to carry EXIM containers along India’s coast. This will bring greater competition to the feeder market which in turn would benefit local importers and exporters. Indian ports would also benefit as this positive change would allow them to compete for container traffic currently handled in adjacent regional hub ports. Maersk acknowledges the effort made by the Indian government to bring a constructive end to an issue that has been the subject of discussion for many years in India. We believe, that the change is a clear evidence of India’s resolve to bring reform to its logistics sector and thereby, enhance its ease of doing business and cost competitiveness ratings.”

Safmarine will be delivering 80 Cryogenic tanks for Cryolor Asia Pacific from India to Charleston, USA, by December, 2018. The company will be working on a behemoth project for Cryolor Asia Pacific. Low availability of low bed trucks along with the height of rail over bridges has been a constant challenge in the smooth flow of OOG shipments via the Kattupalli port in Chennai. To overcome this, Safmarine undertook a feasibility study to determine the best possible route to facilitate smooth flow of the OOG shipment. The detailed study enabled the team of experts at Safmarine to successfully overcome the infrastructure hindrances posed by rail over bridges to transport OOG shipments from the port. Safmarine also sourced requisite low bed trucks for this movement. Bimal Kanal, Managing Director, Safmarine India, said, “With an advantageous shorter transit time our customers can look forward to new levels of improvement in their entire supply chain.”

APM Terminals Pipavav has developed an online version of Form 13 (gate-in permits issued by terminals) required for each import/export container. Known as e-form 13, it will save close to three million kilometers of road trips and their associated carbon emissions each year. For customer this translates into time savings and fuel cost savings. With many of these kilometers often covered by couriers on motorbikes this also means significantly less risk of fatal road traffic accidents. The new paperless system will also save millions of sheets of waste paper per year and speed up the processing. Previously at APM Terminals Pipavav, shipping lines would collect multiple documents to issue completed Form 13 for each import/export container. The truck arrived at the pre-gate waiting area and handed over the documents required to obtain Form 13 to Gate In the container. The Customs House Agent then took the documents on a 14 km round trip to the shipping line’s office to submit the documentation, while wait for a manual Form 13. Once the trucker had Form 13, the details had to be entered in Terminal Operating System by a pre-gate clerk, after which they could enter the terminal.

Agility has signed an agreement with Cold Box Express to offer innovative shipping solutions for temperature-sensitive cargo. Cold Box offers an active temperature-control pallet shipper, designed for mixed-load ground transportation. The shipper is a pallet-sized interior compartment with precise temperature control and range, extended hold times, and 24×7 near-real-time tracking and monitoring. Satish Lakkaraju, Chief Commercial Officer, Agility India, said, “We believe in offering unique, cost-effective solutions that can help customers achieve a more secure cold chain. In the Indian market, where temperatures rise to over 45°C, moving temperature-sensitive cargo can be a challenge. Cold Box’s solution is easy to handle, and perfectly suited to our customer needs.” Under the terms of the partnership, Agility will test one Cold Box as part of a pilot to move cargo for pharmaceutical customers in India. The device will be used for LCL reefer shipments, as well as to move pharmaceutical products to difficult-to-reach locations, areas prone to power cuts, and for last-mile delivery.