The Hindu Business Line : Iron ore shipment through Haldia port picks up

THERE has been bunching of vessels at the Sandheads, the mouth of the Hooghly river, with 20 vessels stranded there. The vessels are waiting for berths at Haldia dock.

About a dozen of these vessels are to load iron ore for exports. However, there is hardly any waiting for berths at the Kolkata Dock System.

"After a lull of several months, the iron ore shipment through Haldia has again picked up," said a spokesman for Haldia Dock, adding, "All the berths which load iron ore have remained occupied for the past few months."

On an average, five railway rakes and 200 trucks loaded with iron ore for exports arrive at the Haldia dock every day. At this rate, the dock, as the spokesman hoped, might end up the current fiscal with more than six million tonnes (mt) of iron ore throughput. Last year (2004-05), the throughput was 5.37 mt.

"In the beginning of 2005, when the ore shipment dropped in the wake of the slump in overseas buying, we kept our fingers crossed and decided to scale down our target for 2005-06 to around five mt or so, only to change our mind subsequently," said the spokesman. The total iron shipment through Haldia so far in the current year has been 2.7 mt as compared to 1.5 mt in the same period of the last year.

In fact, the total traffic throughput at Haldia so far in the current year, as it was pointed out, had been very good. "We have already handled 15.37 mt as compared with 12.65 mt in the same period of the last year. At this rate, we might exceed 40 mt by March next year," he said.

In 2004-05, Haldia dock's total traffic throughput was 36.2 mt.

Other items whose throughputs so far posted growth included petroleum products (imports) at 1.66 mt (1.28 mt), thermal coal (coastal shipment) at 1.47 mt (1.1 mt) and coking coal (imports) at 2.19 mt (1.94 mt). There has been a drop, marginal though, in throughput of crude import at 4.68 mt (4.71 mt). The dock authorities, however, hope that the trend will be reversed and there will be jump in crude throughput in 2005-06 vis-à-vis 2004-05.

Meanwhile, Skanska is believed to be ahead of others in the race to grab the order for constructing number two berth of Haldia dock. The cost of construction is estimated at Rs 20 crore. A decision on this will be finalised at the meeting of the Board of Trustees of the port to be held shortly.

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