The Hindu Business Line : Coastal operators facing rough weather

Coastal shipping companies, hit hard by discriminatory pricing by container terminal operators, are hoping to gain government support by implementing a series of measures.— A. Roy Chowdhury

Shubhra Tandon

Days of rough weather just don’t seem to end for Indian coastal shipping. As it is, coastal shipping companies complain of step-motherly treatment, with the Government not recognising coastal shipping as a vital mode for development of the country’s transport infrastructure. But now the companies engaged in coastal movement of containers say even terminal operators have turned their back on them by charging twice on the transhipment of containers.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr S.K. Shahi, Chairman and Managing Director of SKS Logistics Ltd, said: “Coastal ships engaged in transportation of containers along the Indian coast are being discouraged by terminal operators su ch as Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal, which are charging double the rate for the same containers if they need to be moved within the Indian Coast.”

The Indian Coastal Conference (ICC), the association of coastal operators, in a statement has said: “The terminal operator is insisting on charging a single rate for discharging containers from the mother vessel and then again a single rate for loading containers on to the coastal vessel.” The statement goes on to say that the terminal operators are also violating the guidelines issued by the Tariff Authority for Major Ports.

According to the TAMP Web site, transhipment rates charged by NSICT should be as follows: Rs 1,584 for 20TEU, Rs 2,376 for 40TEU and Rs 3,168 for above 40TEU. However, according to Mr Shahi, the terminal is asking for Rs 2,600 as ‘single rate in’ and same as single rate out.

“What we fear most is that such a move could be replicated by other terminal operators too, thereby discouraging coastal shipping. If that happens, most of us will be left with no other option but to take the road for transportation of containers, thereby adding to the pressure on existing infrastructure and also increasing the transportation time and cost.”

Authorities from Nhava Sheva, when contacted, denied any such move being implemented by the terminal.

They, however, added, that the terminal is congested and cannot accommodate more vessels.

Mr S. S. Rangnekar, former executive director with Shipping Corporation of India and Chairman of the Indian Coastal Conference, said: “The loading port and the discharge port both being at the same place, the charges for coastal ships get duplicated, which could kill coastal shipping. Some incentivisation from the Government on this front could be a boon for the industry.”

Strengthening measures

However, as a silver lining to the cloud, the ICC is planning to strengthen itself by dealing with issues such as manning, specialised training and other measures catering only to development of coastal shipping.

The proposals under consideration include a separate institute for training cadets to join only coastal vessels and construction of coastal vessels suitable for Indian coasts.

“While a candidate is required to score 60 per cent marks in Physics, Chemistry and Maths to join foreign vessels, we are planning to relax the criterion to 50 per cent for national coastal vessels. This will also help us in retaining cadets in Indian coasts,” said Mr Shahi of SKS Logistics.

As regards construction of vessels, he added, “What we are looking at is a subsidy of 30 per cent not just to shipbuilders but also ship owners (coastal ship operators) which will, in return, make working capital available to them and make it easier to operate vessels.”

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