Leveraging its locational advantage on the international sea route, Kochi Port is emerging as India’s favourite bunker outlet and most competitive among its South Asia counterparts.
Hoping to build on these trends, the port is now offering a 100-acre SEZ in Puthuvypeen to accommodate the future growth potential of bunker service (sale of fuel) to ocean going ships.
Senior officials in the port said the bunker industry has been making strides in Kochi with the volumes exceeding 20 per cent. The industry is growing further in an eco-system of streamlined port operations, a supportive customs regime and favourable tax regime that permits floating storage, multiple shipment and rapid supplies on a short notice round the clock.
The tax rates in vogue at Kochi are the lowest with VAT at 0.5 per cent for ocean going vessels and 5 per cent for coastal vessels. Besides, the customer feedback on the quality and the pricing of bunkers sourced from Kochi from all the major suppliers have been encouraging.
Public sector companies such as HPCL, IOC, BPCL-Matrix are the major bunker suppliers in Kochi. The highlight of the bunkering business this year is that Kochi Port did a trial LNG bunkering on February 25, which is creditable considering that the US, too, did its first trial bunkering at Port Fourchon, Louisiana, in the same month.
Kochi has therefore played its part by providing LNG as the ship’s bunker fuel after being the first port in India to handle containers in the 1970s, the officials added.
To spur the growth of India’s bunkering business, the port is now hosting the second edition of international bunkering conference – Destination Cochin 2015 – here May 15.