Category Archives: Shipping

With an aim to transport millions of tonnes of cargo in a cost-effective manner, the Andhra Pradesh government has requested the Railways to extend its dedicated freight corridor to ports in the state. Mentioning how significant the freight-only corridors could become for goods transport, NP Ramakrishna Reddy, CEO, Andhra Pradesh Maritime Board wrote to the Dedicated Freight Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL), requesting its support in the state’s upcoming port development projects. He said the DFC connectivity will act as a catalyst for the overall development of the ports and ensure effective and pollution-free transportation of the cargo, besides being cost-effective. “For this purpose, MoU may be entered into to ensure better coordinated efforts,” he said in the letter, dated August 10. The DFCCIL is presently working on two corridors; Western Corridor and the Eastern Corridor. Four other corridors are proposed. In his letter, Reddy told the DFCCIL that handling of cargoes at all the non-major ports, already developed or under development, in the state is to be done either by road or rail. He said the existing ports have rail links, but DFC connectivity will catalyse the overall development of the ports.

CSP Abu Dhabi has announced the start of a direct, weekly service to several ports across Europe and the Indian Subcontinent. The new direct service will be served by a fleet of eight vessels on rotation, ranging in capacity between 10,000 to 13,000 TEU. Direct exports from Abu Dhabi to the ports of Rotterdam, Hamburg, London, Antwerp, and Le Havre, will consist primarily of polymers while returning vessels will carry a mix of general and project cargo imports. The ports of Karachi, Nhava Sheva, and Mundra will also benefit from the new service. Naser Al Busaeedi, Deputy CEO, CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal, said, “Our new services will significantly increase the movement of cargo exports and imports between Abu Dhabi, Europe and India, providing our customers with solutions to tackle their international shipment needs, as well as the opportunity to target new markets.” Mohamed Eidha Tannaf Al Menhali, Acting Director, Khalifa Port, said, “This new dedicated service marks an important strategic step in Abu Dhabi Ports’ vision to transform Khalifa Port’s end-to-end logistics capability.”

According to the Indian Ports Association (IPA), India’s major ports continued to witness a fall in cargo handling, registering 18.06 per cent dip to 193.38 million tonnes (MT) between April and July this fiscal. Cargo volumes at these 12 major ports under the control of the Centre declined for the fourth straight month in July 2020 and all ports barring Mormugao saw a negative growth. These 12 ports had together handled 236.01 MT of cargo during April-July 2018-19. In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, sharp declines were witnessed in handling of containers, coal and POL (petroleum, oil and lubricant) among other commodities. Ports like Chennai, Cochin and Kamrajar saw their cargo volumes nosedive over 30 per cent during April-July, while JNPT and Kolkata suffered a drop of over 20 per cent. India has 12 major ports under the control of the central government — Deendayal (erstwhile Kandla), Mumbai, JNPT, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Kamarajar (earlier Ennore), V O Chidambarnar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia). These ports handle about 61 per cent of the country’s total cargo traffic. These ports handled 705 MT of cargo last fiscal. While Chennai port saw 32.53 per cent decline in cargo handling to 11.08 MT, Kamarajar (Ennore) port suffered a drop of 35.64 per cent to 7 MT in April-July, as per IPA data. Cochin Port saw a dip of 32.78 per cent to 7.76 MT during the period. Cargo handling at JNPT port slipped 27.69 per cent to 16.94 MT, while the same at Kolkata declined 26.09 per cent to 16.05 MT. Mumbai port logged a fall of 19.79 per cent to 15.85 MT.

To enhance reliability while building a network that helps customers with more resilient and agile supply chains, A.P. Moller – Maersk announces improvements to its network between Europe and the Middle East & Indian Subcontinent (West Central Asia). The updated network will connect more cargo via the Maersk hub in Colombo (Sri Lanka), allowing customers to do consolidation from different origins and better connect their cargo from both Asia and West Central Asia. Furthermore, by linking Middle East stronger to Maersk key hubs in Europe, the changes provide customers additional flexibility and agility to move cargo between different markets. “To meet changing customer needs, we have reviewed our service network and identified opportunities to create new solutions for how we connect Europe and the Middle East & Indian Subcontinent region. Through increased flexibility and connectivity these changes will offer new, interesting ways for our customers to connect their supply chains both from an import and export perspective,” says Johan Sigsgaard, Head of Europe and Middle East Trades, A.P. Moller – Maersk.

Expressing concern over the high logistics cost in the country, which was 30 per cent more than those in developed nations, Mansukh Mandaviya, Shipping Minister, informs, “The government has initiated multiple steps, including strengthening inland waterways, to reduce high logistics cost. He urged private players to join hands to propel India’s growth. “The government of India has taken a large number of steps to reduce logistics cost in the country in order to fuel growth. These include making a network of inland waterways to transport cargo in a cost-effective manner. We have made 1,400 km of waterways operational. The aim of creating a network of waterways is to reduce logistics costs, boost exports and make the country self-reliant, as per Prime Minister ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative,” Mandaviya said. “It is time that private players join hands with government in PPP (public private partnership) projects including ports to fuel economic growth,” the minister said. He urged private sector companies to come forward for initiatives like indigenous building of cranes for ports which so far were being imported at an annual cost of about Rs 10,000 crore. The shipping ministry has taken initiatives like introducing the ‘PCSIx’ platform to reduce logistics costs. Port community system ‘PCS1x’ is a cloud-based technology that offers services like notification, work-flow and track and trace and it is estimated that this feature alone will reduce up to two days in the life of a transaction. “Inter-ministerial consultations were on to boost multimodal transport in the country. Enhanced focus on waterways has resulted in higher cargo movement on inland waterways as well as the Indo-Bangladesh protocol route which has enabled faster delivery of cargo to north eastern states, including …

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust registered a throughput of 344,316 TEUs in container handling, which is 19% higher as compared to June 2020. The port handled total of 196 vessels and the overall traffic handled in July was 4.85 million tonnes (MT) which is an increase of 19 per cent as against 4.07 MT handled in June 2020. Sanjay Sethi, IAS, Chairman, JNPT said, “JNPT will continue to extend support for the country’s economic growth and perform its duties to steadfast growth trajectory of the port sector. In July we have seen exports increasing and expect even the imports to get back to normal by the end of this month. There were few ups and downs but we have managed to keep the operations up and running. Also, JNPT is the first port where port-led economic development is evolving successfully and we are confident of attracting leading global companies for investing here at JNPT SEZ.“

Hindustan Infralog Private Limited (HIPL), a joint venture between DP World and National Investment & Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) has announced an investment of Rs 1000 crore in developing its Nhava Sheva Business Park (NSBP) Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in Mumbai. NSBP, a Special Purpose Vehicle, is a co-developer for the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) SEZ. The company has signed a lease agreement with JNPT for the project. The FTZ is on a long-term Lease of 60 years, and is located 5 kms away from JNPT. Rizwan Soomar, CEO & MD, DP World Subcontinent, said, “The Free Trade Zone will be ready towards the end of 2021. This investment reinforces DP World’s strategy and commitment to India, and strengthens our integrated logistics portfolio in the country. Alongside DP World’s global network of ports & terminals and inland logistics infrastructure in the region, the FTZ will provide a seamless experience for both domestic and international customers.”

To facilitate container truck movement from one bank to another, the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) is weighing the option of constructing a tunnel under the Hooghly River. This move could potentially free city roads of 700-800 trucks daily. Buoyed by the success of underwater tunnelling work for East-West Metro corridor, the KoPT, rechristened as the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, is planning to appoint a consultant to conduct a feasibility study for building a similar structure under the river. Meanwhile, speaking at a seminar organised by CII, Shipping Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said the Centre has waived off waterways charges. The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) had levied the waterway usage charges at a rate of Rs 0.02 per gross registered tonnage (GRT) per km for inland cargo ships and Rs 0.05 for cruise vessels on national waterways.

Shipwaves has joined Maersk-IBM developed TradeLends platform to accelerate the digitisation of the ocean logistics space in India and the Middle East. Having recently allowed shipping bill of lading to be filed over a blockchain platform, India has been betting big on blockchain-enabled solutions to digitize its maritime supply chains. Along the same vein, TradeLens provides controlled, permissioned access to secure and immutable transportation documents while bringing together stakeholders such as shipping carriers, ports, customs offices, and other players in the ecosystem through its blockchain-led platform. Through this linkage, Shipwaves will be able to provide timely end-to-end supply chain visibility, secured sharing of digital shipping documents, and data directly from partners. This will enable the forwarder to improve efficiency and decrease operational costs by a significant margin. Additionally, the smart-contract based workflows will automate and digitise multi-party interactions, which will result in improved efficiency.

According to the latest data from the Indian Ports’ Association (IPA), container cargo in terms of TEUs (twenty foot equivalent unit) at India’s 12 major ports dropped 32.28 per cent to 1.74 million in the first quarter of the current fiscal. In terms of tonnage, the container cargo declined 30.11 per cent to 26.34 million tonnes (MT) in the quarter. These ports had handled containers to the tune of 2.57 million TEUs and 37.69 MT in terms of tonnage in the April-June period of the previous financial year. India has 12 major ports — Kandla, Mumbai, JNPT, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Kamarajar (Ennore), V O Chidambaranar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) — that handle about 61 percent of the country’s total cargo traffic.