India’s major ports are taking to dredging and procuring more cranes to deal with a surge in imported coal. While Paradip Port plans to dredge two of its berths for handling bigger ships, Kandla Port has begun the process of procuring additional cranes.

The higher traffic is a result of the country’s fuel starved thermal power plants resorting to imports, as Coal India struggles to meet the demand. According to the Central Electricity Authority, 56 power plants in the country had critical (less than seven days) of coal stocks as on September 29.

Analysts estimate that coal and coking coal imports in August were 12 per cent higher than the same month last year at 9.41 million tonne. This is after a 3.87 per cent increase in imports during the first quarter of 2014-15 at 50.94 million tonne.

With import volumes increasing, importers have started using larger vessels to get a freight advantage.

Large vessels

“Importers are using 80,000 tonne gearless vessels instead of 60,000 tonne geared ones because of $1-2 per tonne advantage they get in the freight rate,” said a port official.

Gearless vessels depend on the equipment in ports to handle cargo while vessels with gears have cranes onboard. Paradip Port in Odisha can only handle such vessels at one berth.

An official at Paradip Port said that it is now in the process of dredging two more berths to have deeper channels for handling bigger ships. “The tenders are being placed to deepen the channel by December,” said the official.

Kandla Port, which registered over 17 per cent growth in coal handling in August, is in the process of procuring two floating cranes which will help unload cargo from the bigger vessels that cannot come very close to the port, said an official of the port.

At present, Kandla Port operates with two floating cranes. Moreover, two berths of Kandla Port — Tuna/Tekra — are being mechanised by the Adani Group and are expected to be operational by December.

However, evacuation of the imported coal from the ports is also proving to be a concern.

Due to lack of rake availability, the evacuation of coal from the Paradip Port is far from smooth, said an analyst with India Coal Market Watch.

There is still 2-3 million tonnes of coal at the port currently. “There are 400 pending indents with the Railways. Daily evacuation is 9-10 rakes while we would require 20-25 rakes a day,” said an official at the port.

Rake availability has actually declined for Paradip Port as it is only getting around 300 rakes a month at present while last year it was getting 600 rakes.

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