The Hindu Business Line : First ship, with coal from Indonesia, calls at Gangavaram

Visakhapatnam, Aug. 4 The first ship, carrying 53,969 tonnes of non-coking coal from Indonesia, arrived at the newly-constructed Gangavaram port near here on Monday morning. Though the port has not been officially declared open or inaugurated, the vessel has started discharging the coal.The ship, m.v Ikan Sembak, arrived late on Sunday night and was berthed on Monday afternoon, according to Mr K.N. Rao, General Manager (Shipping) of Knowledge Infrastructure Systems Pvt Ltd, a New Delhi-based company.

He said the coal was meant for a thermal plant, belonging to the Maharashtra Power Generation Company (Maha Genco), near Nagpur. “Maha Genco has five thermal power stations and we supply coal to all of them. But for three of the power plants, we bring in coal through Mumbai port and for the remaining we find Visakhapatnam more convenient logistically,” he explained.

He said hitherto the company had imported thermal coal through the Visakhapatnam port, but there were some constraints at the main port. The waiting time was longer.“Gangavaram, being a new port, we need not wait and consequently we can cut down on demurrages and other costs. The new port also has mechanised handling facilities and therefore the discharge rate will be much higher, compared with the Vizag port. Therefore, we can cut down on costs considerably. On the other hand, the handling costs are much higher at Gangavaram port,” he said.

He said his company had taken a bold decision in choosing to bring the vessel to a new port and “we will continue to favour Gangavaram port, considering the pros and cons.”

Mr Rao said the company was also importing thermal coal from South Africa and supplying it to some cement companies in Gujarat. “We also have a good business relationship with the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (the Vizag steel plant) here. We imported 1.5 million tonnes of coal last year (2007-08) and during the current financial year we want to import 4 million tonnes,” he said.

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