The Hindu Business Line : Fertiliser inputs pile up at Mumbai port

STOCKS of fertiliser raw materials are piling up at the two major ports of Mumbai and JNPT in the wake of the nation-wide truckers stir, which entered the sixth day on Saturday.

As vessels are bringing in imported consignments of fertiliser raw materials, the cargo is piling up at the open stockyards of the two ports, as this is one of the major import cargoes that is transported by road to different destinations in the hinterland.

Of the two ports, the Mumbai port is the worst affected, with stocks of over 6,000 tonnes of fertiliser raw materials having been piled up since the stir began. More ships are scheduled to call at the port with the same cargo in the coming days.

A vessel carrying a parcel of imported MoP (muriate of phosphate) has been asked by the port not to discharge the cargo in the light of the strike — the vessel is currently at the port, waiting for the strike to end so that the cargo could be discharged.

Normally, some 500 trucks are deployed at the Mumbai port to evacuate the road-borne import cargoes after discharge from the vessels every day, but this has thinned to a trickle, leading to the confinement of most of these cargoes in the port stockyards, sources told Business Line.

Movement of cargoes meant for export through the port has also been affected, especially steel, machinery and pulses. "Normally, one lakh tonnes of different cargoes are brought into the port everyday for export - out of this, 30 per cent comes by road in about 400 trucks. The movement of this 30 per cent has been affected (because of the stir)," the sources said.

It is felt in port circles that if the strike were to be prolonged, export and import operations will be severely affected.

The impact on JNPT operations is, however, not as intense as in Mumbai port. JNPT uses all the three modes of transportation to move in export cargoes and move out import cargoes — rail, coastal shipping and road. With the share of road transportation being less than 30 per cent, a senior JNPT official put the impact of the strike on its operations at hardly 10 per cent. "We require only 40 to 50 trucks for cargo movement from and to the port. Thus, the impact of the transporters strike on our operations has not been much," a senior JNPT official said.

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