The Hindu Business Line : Chinese carrier FAR starts Vizag-Colombo feeder service

The shipping line, already active on the east coast of India with calls at Kolkata/Haldia and Chennai ports, will offer sailing from Visakhapatnam every fortnight.

On Monday, m.v. Da Fu, Far Shipping's 580-teu capacity feeder vessel, was received at Visakhapatnam port's Visakha container terminal, the latest container terminal operated by Visakha Container Terminal Pvt. Ltd (VCTPL), a joint venture between United Liner Agencies of the J M Baxi Group and Dubai Ports International.

On completing loading and unloading of boxes, the vessel left for Chennai the same day. The shippers opting for the service could also send their Singapore-bound consignments through Chennai where the Shipping Corporation of India is ready with its INDFEX service, according to VCTPL sources.

The shipping line has launched the Visakhapatnam-Colombo service with two vessels of similar capacity, "Da Fu" and "Da Li". A third vessel is likely to be added to the service soon to make it weekly, which is essential to have better connectivity between Visakhapatnam and Colombo particularly to facilitate shipments of West-bound cargo.

In addition to items such as aluminium ingots, ferro chrome, wood pulp and silico-manganese, the sources feel that soya too has the potential of emerging as a major export item through the Visakha container terminal. According to one estimate, about 75,000-teus of soya exports could be handled by the terminal. Tobacco and waste paper also have good export potential. With two units coming up in the Vizag Special Economic Zone, and Volkswagen planning to have its manufacturing facility there, the prospects of engineering items too appears to be bright.

Visakhapatnam port, the sources point out, has many advantages in the form of its proximity to the inland container depots located at Raipur and Nagpur, flexibility of choosing bulk, break-bulk and containerised options, large warehousing space at competitive rates, low vessel-related charges, perhaps the lowest in the country, and proximity to Far Eastern destinations. Compared with JNPT/Mumbai, the distance to Far Eastern destinations from Visakhapatnam could be covered in a much shorter time.

Meanwhile, the port had achieved an all-time record in iron ore loading in January. During the month, a total of 14.07 lakh tonnes was loaded — 11.44 lakh tonnes in outer harbour and 2.63 lakh tonnes in inner harbour. Cumulatively, a total of 94.79 lakh tonnes was handled between April and December 2003 compared with 80.27 lakh tonnes in the same period of the previous year, thus posting a growth of more than 18 per cent.