Ship headed for scrap yard after maiden voyage with cars

Her first voyage has also turned out to be her last. Car carrier IDM Symex was the first ship to carry automobiles through coastal shipping from Chennai to Pipavav on February 4.

With car manufactures not committing to long-term volumes, IDM Symex’s maiden coastal voyage ferrying cars also turned out to be her last. The roll-on, roll-off vessel is now headed to the scrap yard.

This is a major blow to the Centre’s initiative to promote coastal shipping to reduce carbon footprint and congestion on road.

Symex’s owner Mandeep S Tiwana, unable to find enough automobiles in the return direction, even considered bringing the ship empty if there was commitment of higher volume from Chennai. However, there was no such commitment as manufacturers favoured transporting cars by road than via coastal route, he told Business Line .

“We had a major setback as there was no regular cargo available when we started on IDM Symex and volume revenue was below port cost. I waited for a couple months but there was no response from manufacturers. The ship is now heading to the junk yard,” he said.

An automobile industry source said factors such as movement of trucks to the port from plant, waiting time at the port, transit time on sea and transportation of vehicles by road to end customers were issues that lead to delays in delivery. There is unpredictability in each of these legs, especially given the road conditions in places like Chennai.

A solid road connectivity backed by large volume by major manufacturers could make coastal ro-ro shipping a success. It is difficult to give a firm commitment as coastal movement is still in a nascent stage and could be an alternative only if road conditions worsen, the source said.

Tiwana convinced the Shipping Ministry to reduce tariff for ro-ro car carriers following which major ports of Chennai and Mumbai reduced the charges. Despite this, he was unable to get on board enough cars. There was not enough volume to deploy a proper car carrier, he said.

The India-born ship owner, who has been living in Singapore for over three decades, is not giving up and plans to return with a smaller size Ro-Ro ship with a capacity of around 600 cars. Even if there is no vehicle in return direction, the ship can carry steel for southern markets, he said.

In its first voyage, Symex carried 800 cars as against ship’s capacity of 4,000 cars. “In the first attempt I took the loss as I did not have any debt,” he said.

Coastal shipping was cheaper than road transport by 25-30 per cent for transporting cars. It is pollution-free, as nearly 100 car trailers would be off the road. Each trailer can carry seven or eight cars and freight is ₹1.5 lakh per trailer from Chennai to Pipavav, he said.

According to government estimates, a diversion of 5 per cent of cargo transportation to a water-borne mode can result in an annual saving of ₹2,000 crore and a reduction of 6 per cent in harmful chemicals and pollutants.

Share of coastal shipping in India is only around 15 per cent of local freight as against 43 per cent in the European Union. Commodities carried by coastal shipping include thermal coal, crude oil, iron ore and cement, and this has not changed over the years.

Prominent coastal shipping routes are Chennai to Chittagong/Yangon through Haldia/Kolkata; Pipavav/Mundra to Kochi; coal from Kolkata to Kandla and Bhavnagar, and inland and coastal movement in and around Goa.

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