The Hindu Business Line : Concor hikes box haulage rates for Amingaon ICD

THE Container Corporation of India (Concor) has firmed up haulage charges for movement of containers to and from the Amingaon (Guwahati) inland container depot (ICD) for the forthcoming tea season due to begin from June/July. The new rates will be higher than the prevailing rates.

For empties, the hike will be Rs 150 per TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) and for loaded containers Rs 300 per TEU. Which means that the movement of an empty container from Concor's Cossipore ICD to the Amingaon ICD will cost Rs 8,250/TEU as soon as tea shipment begins from June/July compared with the current Rs 8,100/TEU. Similarly, the movement of a loaded container from Amingaon to the Haldia dock for exports will cost Rs 11,900/TEU (Rs 11,600/TEU). The rates were finalised at a meeting organised by Concor at Shillong (Meghalaya) recently. Describing the hike as marginal, Concor sources said the increase was much more — Rs 700/TEU for an empty and Rs 600/TEU for a loaded container — in 2003-04.

"If one takes into account the total cost of shipment to the shipper, also covering ocean freight, documentation charges and others, one will find that Concor's haulage charge constitutes an insignificant portion of the total cost," the sources said.

The shippers present at the meeting refrained from giving any indication of the probable size of shipments through the Amingaon ICD in the 2004-05 tea season, citing market uncertainty and stiff competition from several countries as the major reasons.

In 2003-04, the total throughput of the Amingaon ICD was 1,920 TEUs, the lowest since 1994-95 caused mainly by lower volumes of exports to the UK, the US, the UAE, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Pakistan, closing of the London Tea Auction Centre, economic slump caused by war and political unrest and stiff international competition. The throughput this year, it was felt, might be more or less the same. The shippers, however, hailed Concor's decision to slap a modest hike this year.

The Shillong meeting revealed some interesting developments. For the first time, the Amingaon ICD attracted import containers in relative large volume (322 TEUs) in 2003-04. The import was made by MMTC through the Kolkata Dock System. The figure in the current year, it was estimated, might rise to 1,000 TEUs. Also, for the first time, two empty rakes, carrying 74 TEUs, were booked from the Kolkata Dock System.

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