Paradip port situated in the east coast of India is one of the busiest ports for import and export of goods. The key products imported from Paradip port include coal, iron ore, pet coke, met coke, lime, and gypsum.
If we analyse the coal movement at Paradip port, we can see wide fluctuations in its berthing period over the last one month of Dec’17 to Jan’18. The berthing period in coal imported at Paradip port in the last week of Dec’17 stood at around 18-20 days whereas the same reduced to just 2-3 days in last week of Jan’18.
The delay in berthing period in the end of Dec’17 is an indication of high congestion of the vessels (carrying imported material) at the port. The key reason for the same can be attributed to increased demand of imported coal from non-power sector.
In second half of 2017, the demand for coal from thermal power plants saw significant increase which was met by the domestic production from Coal India. However, the increased supply of coal to power sector resulted in its shortage in non-power sector which subsequently opted for imported material to meet its requirement.
Another reason that is responsible for vessel congestion at Paradip port is the low availability of rakes for imported coal from non-power sector. In Sep17, 193 rakes were supplied daily to the power sector, which has further increased to 206 in October. This numbers further increased in the month of Nov and Dec’17.
Looking at the customs data, India’s coal imports plunged from 1.86 MnT in last week of Dec’17 to 1.34 MnT in third week of Jan’17 amid increased availability of coal for both power and non-power sector from Coal India. Subsequently, the number of vessels at the anchorage reduced from 21 to 7 vessels in the last week of Jan’17.
The vessel waiting time for coal at Haldia port increased from 12-13 days to 16-17 days whereas the number of vessels at anchorage increased from 11 to 23 during the period of one month from Dec’17 to Jan’18.
Leave a Reply