The Covid-19 pandemic has hit port operations hard and cargo handling has been impacted. Incidentally, due to depressed domestic demand exports are surging at a time when scarcity of manpower at ports has resulted in inevitable disruptions.
Force Majeure
In a trade circular issued by the Traffic Department on April 29, authorities at the Paradip Port Trust (PPT) have directed all steel cargo at the port to be handled by the General Cargo Berth (GCB) instead of the Paradip International Cargo Terminal (PICT).
The exclusive terminal that only handles steel cargo was overwhelmed by the “unusually high traffic volume and have notified the outbreak of Covid-19 as a force majeure event”, the circular reads. Steel cargo will now be handled by the other terminals till June 30, 2020 till further review of the situation.
The EQ-1 berth at the port has been earmarked to handle steel cargo; however, other berths could be pressed into service if they happen to remain vacant for want of vessel, the circular reads.
The shifting of vessels from PICT berth to EQ-1/GCB berths or vice versa for part loading of steel cargo of minimum of 5000 MT will be considered as shifting on “Port convenience” and no shifting charge will be levied on vessel/exporter, the circular further states.
Rise in Dwelling Time
“Force majeure for PICT was invoked on March 25,” Capt. Satyabrata Satpathy, in-charge of PICT at PPT, tells SteelMint. “The terminal is working in the absence of manpower, equipment and other resources and productivity is down. However, as an essential service we are continuing operations but since we are not working to full capacity force majeure was invoked.”
“Although operations are continuing the dwelling time of cargo at the port has increased due to unavoidable disruptions in operations during the prevailing lockdown,” says Satpathy. “The dwelling time has increased to 6-7 days. Usually in normal circumstances, the dwelling time for steel coils is 2-3 days and for billets it is 5-6 days. The dwelling time also depends on the exporter. For example, JSPL sends across plates, billets and other products for 3-4 shipments all at a time. So in order to have a complete shipment cargo ready it takes about 7-8 days.”
“PPT handles about 3-4 MnT cargo each year and at normal times the material at the port is hardly 30,000-40,000 MT. During lockdown this has increased to 1-2 lakh tonnes,” informs Satpathy.
~ By Nirmalya Deb
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