Date:15/03/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/03/15/stories/2005031501750700.htm

Back Mundra port set for huge raw sugar imports

Vinod Mathew

Raw sugar being unloaded from the Panamax vessel at a mechanical berth in Mundra port.

Mundra (Gandhidham, Gujarat), March 14

IT looks like fine sand, but it soon becomes evident that the huge mounds that are getting unloaded from the Handimax vessel m.v. Alfanourios is raw sugar.

On the other side of the quay, there are no such mounds getting piled up but the smell of sugar is thick in the air as it is once again raw sugar that is getting unloaded. The only difference — sugar from m.v. SeaIlex, a larger sized Panamax vessel, is flowing into the port through a conveyor system.

The two vessels that are docked side by side at Mundra are together carrying over one-lakh tonnes of raw sugar, destined for the factories of Uttar Pradesh, that have been hit by a deficient domestic crop this year.

Over the last couple of weeks, three other vessels had unloaded over 1.12-lakh tonnes at Mundra.

All five vessels had Santos, Brazil, as it port of loading. According to the order book position at the port, financial year 2006 will see 4-lakh tonnes getting imported through Mundra. Mundra port that became renowned for handling some of the biggest consignments of coal in the country is set to reach an all-time high of 7 million tonnes of cargo this year, withcoal accounting for 2 million tonnes, followed by fertiliser and steel.

Even the nearby Kandla port is looking to handle larger parcel size of over 6-lakh tonnes of raw sugar in the coming fiscal. This would take the aggregate imports to over one million tonnes.

At Kandla port, there is already one vessel unloading raw sugar, with two more waiting to dock. One-lakh tonnes have been imported through this port in the last couple of weeks and another 6-lakh tonnes are expected to berth in the coming months.

As these imports - at Kandla and Mundra ports- will ease with the onset of the monsoons, the attempt would be to ensure as much parcels of raw sugar as possible to dock before the rains come.

Discount drives traders

ACCORDING to port sector analysts, this is part of a 5-million tonne import plan that the country is set to witness in the coming fiscal.

The decision whether imports will be limited to only raw sugar and not refined sugar will depend on the country's capacity to hold the price line at the current levels, they said.

It is reliably learnt from industry sources that the present round of raw sugar imports is as per an `advanced licence scheme' offered by the Government.

The importers are bringing in raw sugar at zero per cent duty against an obligation to re-export refined sugar within 36 months. The duty component, otherwise, would have been 60 per cent, and it is this massive discount that is driving the sugar traders to go in for imports.

Also, with the sale of raw sugar taking place from high seas, the Uttar Pradesh traders who are importing the sugar, need not pay any sales tax to the Gujarat Government.