Paradip port situated in the east coast of India is country’s second busiest ports for import and export of goods. The key products transacted from Paradip port include coal, iron ore, pet coke, met coke, lime, and gypsum. The port caters to the entire industrial hinterland of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and the entire North-East.
In the recent time due to better efficiencies Indian importers and exporters have made Paradip Port their preferred port which in turn has led to increased volumes of cargo being handled at the port. This has led to Paradip port handling a record cargo of 100 MnT exhibiting the growth of 15% y-o-y basis. The port has a total cargo handling capacity of 277 MnT per year making it the largest port in the country in terms of rated capacity.
There has also been an improvement in port’s efficiency as its ship turnaround time (time taken for a ship to unload, load, and sail off) has reduced from 7 days in FY15 to 3 days in FY18.
The recent delays in Paradip’s berthing period
The Paradip port has set a higher target of handling 120 MnT of cargos in the current fiscal year of 2108-19. However, since past few days delays have been observed in the berthing period of cargos at the Paradip port and the usual waiting period at the port has increased from 2-3 days to 8-9 days.
The main reason that can be attributed to the same is a delay in evacuation from the port due to a surge in port’s cargo volumes. The higher the cargo volumes, the higher will be the evacuation requirement from the port either by rail or by road. As per the port rules and regulations, the port does not interfere with the user’s freedom of choosing their transporter in the evacuation of the cargo from the port.
According to our market sources, although there is close to 4 MnT of cargo lying at the Paradip port at present, the daily evacuation is approximately 75,000 tonnes, out of which 65,000 tonnes is through rail and 500 trucks per day by road.
Coal cargo in many plots has caught fire due to delayed evacuation and is posing a safety hazard and a pollution issue. Apparently seeing this unfavourable situation here, importers are diverting ships to nearby Ports in West Bengal and Visakhapatnam.
Importers are now trying to further increase road despatch to at least 15,000 – 20,000 tonnes per day through utilization of empty trucks moving out of Paradip by backloading to them. The port is also closely following up with ECOR (East Coast Railway Zone) to increase railway rakes and resolve this issue of delayed evacuation.
Paradip port’s long-term plans to resolve delays
In long run, the Paradip Port Trust (PPT) plans to increase its capacity from existing 277 MTPA to 325 MTPA BY 2025. Initiatives have also been taken for development of multipurpose berth to handle clean cargo including containers of 5 MTPA capacity at an estimated cost of INR 430.78 crore. The berth is expected to be made operational soon.
Besides, a deep draught coal berth is being developed for handling import cargo of 10 MTPA capacity at an estimated cost of INR 655 crore which will be operational by March 2021. An iron ore berth of 10 MTPA capacity is also being developed at an estimated cost of INR 740 crore which will be operational by March next year.
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