The Hindu Business Line : Uncleared imported coal causes concern to Paradip port

PARADIP Port Trust is mulling slapping a penalty on nearly two lakh tonnes of imported coal, both coking and non-coking varieties, lying uncleared within the port premises for more than 45 days.

There are several importers, mostly traders, who refuse to evacuate the materials out of the port presumably because of not-so-remunerative prices of the minerals in the market. This is causing problems to the port authorities.

Meanwhile, faced with the unsatisfactory arrivals of thermal coal from the mines, PPT is planning to use the stackyard adjacent to its mechanised coal handling plant for the purpose of stocking other minerals including imported non-thermal coal.

Mechanised coal handling is used for handling shipments of thermal coal by the coastal route. Its stackyard has a capacity for 6.5 lakh tonnes.

The throughput of thermal coal has been a matter of concern to the port authorities, not without reasons though. Thermal coal represents the single largest item accounting for nearly 40 per cent of the port's total cargo throughput — more than 10 mt out of the total cargo throughput of 25.8 mt. The trend so far in the current year indicates that the share this fiscal might drop to less than 40 per cent. This will happen because thermal coal throughput this year is likely to remain more or less unchanged at the last year's level, while the total cargo throughput of the port is estimated to rise to around 30 mt from last year's 25.8 mt.

In fact, on February 5 this year, last year's total traffic was surpassed to reach 25.44 mt. However, till January, the thermal coal throughput was 8.8 mt (including 7.15 mt for Tamil Nadu Electricity Board).

Ever since the beginning of the year, i.e., April 2004, thermal coal arrivals at the port for coastal shipments to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) have been less than the stipulated in the linkages. Cumulatively, between April 2004 and January 2005, the linkage for TNEB was for 7.5 mt while the actual arrival was to the tune of 6.85 mt, although shipment was higher at 7.15 mt thanks to the utilisation of the ground stock. "There being hardly any ground stock now, we virtually live from hand to mouth," observe port sources.

Inquiries reveal that there has not been any drop in coal production in the mines; if anything, there has been an increase in production.

The problem arises because the port's demand is much more than what the coal company can supply. Also, the problem has been compounded by the limited line capacity of the Railways.

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