The Hindu Business Line : Haldia, Paradip post record coking coal dispatches in November

THREE east coast ports of Haldia, Paradip and Visakhapatnam together held at the beginning of this month a ground stock of about 2.5 lakh tonnes of imported coking coal even after dispatching a record 9.7 lakh tonnes in November (the previous highest being 9.2 lakh tonnes in September 2004) to various plants of Steel Authority of India Ltd. The total imports in the three ports together in November were to the tune of 12.2 lakh tonnes.

During November, both Haldia and Paradip made record dispatches — Haldia 4.44 lakh tonnes (129 rakes) and Paradip 1.73 lakh tonnes (52 rakes). Visakhapatnam dispatched 3.52 lakh tonnes (105 rakes). Thus, a total of 286 rakes, the highest so far, of imported coal were dispatched from the three ports together.

Haldia was programmed to handle 132 rakes but could not as Bokaro Steel Plant clamped restriction on the arrival of coking coal rakes because of its own operational constraints.

At Visakhapatnam port, the shortfall was of 15 rakes — 105 rakes dispatched against the programme of 120 rakes. The shortfall is attributed to the operational constraints at the port level.

Bhilai Steel Plant is entirely dependent on Visakhapatnam for importing coking coal. The shortfall in loading at the port, therefore, was made up by increased dispatches from Paradip.

Of the total 52 rakes handled by Paradip, 19 were sent to Bhilai steel plant. However, the exercise proved costly for Bhilai because it had to cough an additional Rs 15 lakh or so for each rake by way of railway freight as the route to Bhilai from Paradip is longer than that from Visakhapatnam.

Also, the movement involved participation of an additional zonal railway, namely, South Eastern Railway.

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