• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Mamuni Das

New Delhi, Sept. 7 In the wake of competition from new entrants and with an aim to increasing service levels at its inland container depots (ICDs), Container Corporation of India (Concor) has procured 15 reach stackers from German firm Linde to move containers within the depots.

Reach stackers are used in container depots or ports to move containers and pile them in rows. They are more popular than lift trucks for handling containers because they have higher stacking and storage capacity.

Concor’s orders are over and above some 50 reach stackers used by the company under the ‘hiring model’ (where Concor neither owns nor operates the equipment) and seven reach stackers owned by it.

Usually, Concor used the “hiring model” for getting reach stacker services in its depots, wherein it outsourced the box handling through reach stackers to smaller contractors. These contractors used to procure, maintain and operate them within the ICDs of Concor. However, they generally procured old equipment, which in turn led to lesser levels of productivity of the equipment.

At present, Concor has roughly about 50 reach stackers under use at various container depots — owned and operated by such contractors.

Concor officials realised that the reach stackers owned by these contractors gave an uptime performance of 55 per cent on an average, which meant that some were not functioning for months altogether.

In this backdrop, the company decided to procure new reach stackers and let the original equipment manufacturer maintain and operate them under the technical supervision of its officials. Earlier, it had adopted this model for seven reach stackers for its Tughlakabad ICD in Delhi. “These reach stackers had an uptime performance of 80 per cent,” said official sources.

This meant that those offered by contractors under the “hiring model” were not performing as well as those “owned by Concor”. Thus based on a life-cycle cost and performance analysis, Concor decided to procure its own reach stackers.

Based on a global tender, Concor placed orders for 15 from German firm Linde in May this year, sources said, adding that about seven-eight global firms were in the race. Ten of the new reach stackers would serve the Tughlakabad depot.

More Stories on : Supply Chain Management

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
China-bound vessel beaches near shore at Tannir Bavi

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line