The Hindu Business Line : IOC plans increased crude import via Haldia

According to indication available, IOC is likely to import an estimated 11.5-12 mt of crude through the dock this year. In 2003-04, the crude import was around 10.4 mt.

Of the total quantity of crude to be imported, an estimated five mt each will be consumed by IOC's two refineries located at Haldia and Barauni while the remaining 1.5-2 mt will be sent to Bongaigaon Refineries & Petrochemicals Ltd in Assam.

Haldia dock sources said that the total cargo throughput in the dock so far in current fiscal was at 6.7 mt, an improvement of 5-6 per cent over the same period of the last year, and attributed it entirely to the rise in crude traffic.

The dock has so far handled an estimated 2.5 mt, roughly one mt a month on an average.

The throughput of petroleum products, however, is likely to remain unchanged at the last year's level of around four mt.

In 2003-04, the dock handled a total of 4.08 mt of petroleum products and about 0.68 mt so far in the current year.

The Shipping Ministry has set a target of 33.9 mt of total traffic for the current fiscal for Haldia dock compared to the actual throughput of 32.3 mt in 2003-04.

The bulk of the incremental traffic, an estimated one mt out of 1.6 mt, will be on account of crude.

Judging by the trend of other items, the dock authorities could not be too sure of any significant jump in their throughputs in course of the year. The import of coking coal and the export of iron ore has become somewhat uncertain thanks to the unfavourable international market condition.

The throughputs of items like coking coal, thermal coal and iron ore so far in the current fiscal have been 0.967 mt, 0.67 mt and 0.63 mt respectively.