The Hindu Business Line : A `tea party' at Amingaon ICD

Shipping lines, shippers, the Railways, the Kolkata port and others involved in tea exports via Amingaon (Guwahati) inland container depot (ICD) thrashed out issues at a Concor-organised meeting.

The tea meeting in Guwahati is an annual event, with participation of the representatives of the shipping lines, shippers, the Railways, the Kolkata port and others involved directly and indirectly in tea exports undertaken through the Amingaon (Guwahati) inland container depot (ICD). Organised by the Container Corporation of India (Concor), the meeting reviews the performance of the season just concluded and finalises the programme for the one ahead.

The meeting, held recently at the Kaziranga National Park near Guwahati, noted with satisfaction that for the first time in several years, the shipments through the ICD posted an impressive growth in 2005-06. At a throughput of 2303 TEU, the growth was more than 21 per cent. There had been no growth in tea shipments via the Amingaon ICD the past few years. Indeed, there was a steady decline. Thus, the throughput in 2001-02 was 2,005 TEUs (compared to 2,335 in 2000-01), in 2002-03 it was 1,956 TEUs, in 2003-04: 1,920, and in 2004-05: 1,899. The upward trend in 2005-06 would continue in 2006-07 also, it was felt. The exporters sounded bullish, so much so that the target for the year was set at 3,000 TEUs.

HIGHER HAULAGE CHARGES

Next, Concor's proposal to hike haulage charges, though unacceptable to shippers, did not evoke vehement opposition from them either. This was presumably because Concor pleaded its helplessness. Blame the Railways, the shippers were told. Also, it was clear that Concor was not passing the entire burden of the increase, as announced by the Railways, on the shippers. Had the entire burden been passed onto the shippers, the increase in the haulage charge would have been as much as Rs 3,000 per TEU.

However, Concor proposed an increase of Rs 1,150 per TEU; Rs 1,100 per loaded box and Rs 50 per empty, thus absorbing the larger burden of the increase. As a result, the Railways' transportation cost would rise to Rs 21,600 per TEU, comprising Rs 13,000 for a loaded container and Rs 8,600 for an empty, up from Rs 20,450 now, comprising Rs 11,900 for loaded and Rs 8,550 for an empty. The handling charges both at the ICD end and at the KDS too were left unchanged.

TRANSFER COST

Several other options were also examined on how to reduce the cost. Thus, within the Kolkata Dock System, Concor picks up the empties from the yards used by the shipping lines for storage purpose and brings them to its own yard before putting them on railway flats for transportation to Amingaon. The shipping lines often complain that Concor charged high rates for such transfers. The cost would be much less if they were allowed to do the same job. Earlier, Concor would not to listen to it. This time it agreed.

Concor pointed out that the total railway transportation cost would substantially drop if matching traffic was available on the KDS-Amingaon leg. Right now, there is hardly any traffic on the route with the result the empties are repositioned at the ICD at a cost. It was not necessary, as Concor explained, that there had to be enough loaded imported boxes to run a full rake on the KDS-Amingaon section. These boxes could be put on the rakes run by Concor for transporting domestic traffic on the route.

OTHER DEMANDS

Concor promised to attend to some of the long-standing demands of the shippers. Thus, a reach stacker would be added to the fleet of handling equipment at the ICD, the railway lines would be re-modelled to accommodate full-length rake on each side, and separate facilities introduced for handling EXIM and domestic traffic. No such segregation is possible now. Also, there would be repairing of transit warehouse, proper lighting arrangement in the yard and repairing of pavement between the warehouse and Line No 1.

The meeting revealed a few other things. For the first time, Cosco, China's national carrier, showed interest in participating in the tea shipments through the Amingaon ICD. With a throughput of 941 TEUs (925 TEUs in 2004-05), the Shipping Corporation of India continued to be the single largest carrier of the ICD tea, followed by APL with 887 TEUs, posting a significant jump over last year's 322 TEUs.

This was because APL transported a lot of tea to Jebel Ali in the UAE not served by SCI. P&O's share, on other hand, dropped to 86 TEUs (436 TEUs). Maersk, which handled 50 TEUs in 2004-05, did not participate in the ICD shipment at all in 2005-06.

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