The Hindu Business Line : NTPC to step up imports through Paradip

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Paradip port hopes to handle an estimated 4.5-5 mt steam coal in the current fiscal.
Steel Authority of India plans to step up its import through the port.

Kolkata , Aug. 10

National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), which is already importing steam coal through Paradip port for its Talcher plant, proposes to step up imports , to meet part of the requirements of its Farakka (West Bengal) and Kahalgaon (Bihar) plants.

As a result, Paradip port, which handled 3.3 million tonnes (mt) of steam coal in 2005-06, hopes to handle an estimated 4.5-5 mt in the current fiscal (2006-07). In addition to NTPC, other public sector organisations such as MMTC, State Trading Corporation of India and a few private firms, too, import steam coal through the port.

The import for the current fiscal has just begun and two consignments totalling an estimated 85,000 tonnes have already arrived.

The import of coking coal by steel plants too is on the rise, so much so that the port is likely to end the current fiscal with an estimated 4.7-5 mt of traffic as compared with 3.7 mt in 2005-06. Steel Authority of India Ltd will step up its import through the port, while at least three other private sector steel plants, namely Nilachal Ispat, Jindal Steel and Visa Steel, are expected to import about one mt each during the course of the year. In first four months, coking throughput at 1.42 mt (1.31 mt) posted a growth of 8 per cent.

However, coastal shipments of thermal coal, traditionally the single largest item of traffic , were lower during the period from April to July this year vis-à-vis the same period last year. The throughput during the period at 3.77 mt (4.09 mt), posted a drop of 7.86 per cent.

The volume of iron ore for exports too is steadily rising. In first four months, the throughput was 3.99 mt (2.93 mt), registering a growth of 36 per cent. The import of fertiliser raw materials (dry) is set for a big jump, the throughput in the first four months being 0.83 mt (0.49 mt), or a growth of 67 per cent. The throughput of chrome ore, charge chrome and various other items at 1.5 mt (one mt) posted a growth of 50 per cent.

In first four months of the current fiscal (April to June 2006-07), the total traffic throughput at 12.01 mt (10.24 mt) showed a growth of more than 17 per cent.