The Hindu Business Line : On road to smoother operations

Earlier, our transportation arrangements were old and haphazard, with even camels used as part of our multi-modal mix. But with inputs from Concor and Sical, our product movement has become more streamlined and seamless.

MR SATISH CH GUPTA, CMD, HINDUSTAN COPPER

Santanu Sanyal

The Rs 1,800-crore public sector company, Hindustan Copper Ltd, has initiated steps towards transportation and logistics management as a means to reduce costs and improve performance, and these will yield results soon, says Mr Satish Ch Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director of the company. In a discussion with Business Line at Tamra Bhavan, the HCL headquarters in Kolkata, recently, Mr Gupta talked of the challenges faced by the company and the steps being taken to overcome them.

Excerpts from the interview:

Could you tell us about your operations?

Our operations are varied. We raise copper-bearing ore from the mines, then produce metal in concentrates in our beneficiation plants, cathodes in our smelters and finally wire rods. We have mines in Jharkhand (Ghatsila), Madhya Pradesh (Malanjkhand) and Rajasthan (Khetri). We have beneficiation plants in Malanjkhand, Musaboni (Ghatsila) and Khetri and smelters in Moubhandar (Ghatsila) and Khetri and the wire rod mill in Taloja in Maharashtra.

Which means you have to transport ore from the mines to beneficiation plants, copper concentrates from beneficiation plants to smelters and copper cathodes from smelters to Taloja plant. Isn’t that so?

Yes. But we also arrange for transportation of wire rods from Taloja plant to our warehouses located in different parts of the country. In addition, we import copper concentrates through Kandla port and take delivery, by rail, about 4,500 tonnes of coal and 1,000 kl of furnace oil a month on an average. We also transport ore by ropeway in Khetri. Our transportation system is fairly complex.

How do you handle it?

Earlier, our transportation arrangement was old and haphazard. Even camels were used in our Rajasthan complex. There would be road movement of concentrates from Malanjkhand beneficiation plant to the nearest rail station at Gondia, which was about 150 km away, where the materials would be loaded in BCN wagons for transportation to Moubhandar. A lot of wastage was the result.

In addition, on an average 4.5 to five lakh tonnes of ore annually were transported by 7.5-km long ropeway in Khetri and then there was road movement of imported concentrates and wire rods. These are all stand-alone operations. We felt there was scope for rationalisation of all such movement.

What kind of rationalisation?

We first asked Concor to undertake movement of copper concentrates in containers from Malanjkhand to Moubhandar. In March 2006, Concor started its operation by transporting the empties by road from its Raipur inland container depot (ICD) to Malanjkhand beneficiation plant covering a distance of about 200 km and, on stuffing the containers with copper concentrates, brought back the loaded boxes again by road to Raipur ICD and from there the boxes were sent by rail straight to Moubhandar.

Concor did a good job but it was a piece-meal operation. What about similar seamless transportation at other levels, we wondered, and decided to take advantage of a third party logistics service provider such that one agency could be entrusted with the responsibility of the entire transportation, not only of copper concentrates but also cathodes, wire rods and imports. Accordingly we floated a tender and Chennai-based Sical Logistics Ltd (SLL) emerged as the successful bidder.

What kind of service does it provide?

SLL offers a total package covering the entire gamut of transportation — from the movement of copper concentrates to smelters, copper cathodes to Taloja plant, wire rods to warehouses and even handling imports. SLL handles the road transportation and its sister company Sical Multimodal & Rail Transport (SMART) the rail transportation.

Is it cost-effective?

I believe so. It is a two-year contract and the total cost, it is estimated, will be less than what we incurred so far. If you take into account wastage in transit and multiple handling in the earlier transportation system, the real gains now will be even more. They started operation in 2008 and the experience so far has been satisfactory.

How?

Malanjakhand has no rail connectivity. SMART, therefore, has identified Hatta Road, a station on the Gondia-Balaghat broad gauge section, for undertaking the terminal operation.

SMART mobilises the empties from all over the country at Hatta Road and then sends them by road to Malanjkhand covering a distance of 117 km and brings back the loaded boxes again by road to Hatta Road where the loaded boxes are put on railway flats for onward movement to Moubhandar. The Hatta Road-Ghatsila distance is more than 800 km.

You don’t send Malanjkhand metal concentrates to Khetri?

Generally no. But right now, the Moubhandar smelter is shut down due to revamping work. So SMART is now sending by rail the Malanjkhand concentrates to Khetri complex. The rail movement is up to Patli and from there road movement, covering a distance of about 90 km. Recently, a few thousand tonnes of reverts, sort of slag from copper concentrates, were also transported in containers by rail from Ghatsila to a private firm in Chaltan in Gujarat.

How does Khetri complex meet its requirement?

There are mines located at Khetri as well as Kolihan, which is near Khetri, and the ore raised in Kolihan is transported by a ropeway to Khetri beneficiation plant which, in turn, supplies concentrates to the smelter. In fact, the Khetri complex does not produce enough concentrates to meet its entire requirement.

We, therefore, import concentrates, about 15,000 tonnes annually, through Kandla port. And the entire movement is by road and Sical Logistics now takes care of the road movement.

No plans for rail movement of imports?

Not really. First, the volume is small. Also, the import is not uniformly spread throughout the year. We import as and when we require it.

What about cathode movement?

We transport an estimated 45,000 tonnes of cathodes every year to Taljola plant and the entire movement is by road.

And wire rods?

The wire rod production is a little less than 60,000 tonnes annually, which again is transported entirely by road to our various warehouses spread throughput the country.

What are your next priorities in logistics management?

Streamlining the rail transportation of coal from West Bokaro collieries to Ghatsila complex. An estimated 54,000 tonnes of coal are moved every year. We also bring in by rail more than 1,000 kl of furnace oil from Budge Budge (West Bengal) every month and the same railway line within the plant is used for handling the rakes. The line length is small, unable to handle a full rake. This creates operational problems. We have, therefore, asked Rites Ltd to undertake a study and suggest measures for augmenting the line capacity in tune with the projected capacity increase of our plant.

We have also initiated steps to develop a container park and modernise the railway track for handling containers more efficiently, not only to cater to our requirement but also with an eye on probable outside firms that might be interested in using the facilities. We’re also revamping the ropeway in Khetri. Most important, we are examining if the in-plant logistics too could be streamlined as a means to achieve further reduction in costs.

More Stories on : Interview | PSU | Metals | Transport

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

Stories in this Section
String of accidents in June

GMR hikes bus fares to airport

Airlines struggle as air travel loses its charm

Vessel for Lakshadweep flagged off at Hindusthan Shipyard

Rlys faces key talent flight

On road to smoother operations

IOC to up product movement through pipelines by 30%

Howrah rail link partially restored

Study on Trans-Kalahari route