Back Relief in sight for Goan iron ore exporters
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| Dry bulk transhipper `Goan Pride' commissioned |
The transhipper can handle dry cargoes other than iron ore as well, switching from one to the other totally or handling more than one simultaneously.
Mumbai , April 10
Iron ore exports from Goa, long plagued by high transport cost, should find relief with Katra Wilhelmsen Logistics (P) Ltd formally commissioning the world's biggest dry bulk `transhipper' in deep waters off the State's coast.
A large dry bulk carrier converted for the purpose in China, the Goan Pride can store more than 1,20,000 tonnes of cargo and load it on ships at over 4,500 tonnes an hour.
It can load a Panamax vessel in a single day and a Capesize in two.
While its advent is in times of high prices for iron ore, the idea of a full-fledged transhipper was born a few years ago when iron prices fell steeply and steel mills globally were going through a rough patch.
"In dry bulk, logistics accounts for 40-50 per cent of total cost," Mr Ramesh Vangal, Chairman of the Katra Group, told newspersons.
As is the norm in transport, when commodity prices fell iron ore importers abroad migrated to large ships, which ensured transport economies but commanded heavy demurrage in the event of loading delays.
Historically, iron ore transport in Goa has been a complicated affair with barges bringing the material from mines inland to a port that could accommodate only small ships or large ones lightered enough for its modest draft.
To tide over it, some Goan exporters ( such as Salgaocar) had come up with their version of deep sea transhippers, which Mr Gokul Patnaik, Managing Director, Katra Wilhelmsen Logistics, said was little more than floating cranes transferring iron ore from barges to ships.
They couldn't load fast enough and were dependent on regular barge arrivals for ore to transfer.
If that supply chain broke temporarily, the transhippers' work got affected.
The Goan Pride surmounts this handicap by having its own "surge capacity", storing several thousand tonnes of iron ore in its holds, said Mr Sid Sridhar, President of Seabulk Systems, which redesigned the dry bulk vessel Transit into the transhipper.
Incidentally, the transhipper can handle dry cargoes other than iron ore as well, switching from one to the other totally or handling more than one simultaneously.
Given steel mills in North Karnataka, the iron ore transhipper off Goa holds the promise of handling coal imports.
0The operators see great potential in coal handling for such vessels, particularly in the light of power sector needs.
Through the acquisition of the Transit and its conversion, Wilh Wilhelmsen and Katra (who are 50:50 partners in Katra Wilhelmsen) owned the ship.
It has since been transferred to an equally owned joint venture of Salgaocar and Dempo, both leading iron ore export houses from Goa.
The Goan Pride will now service their needs. While the project cost was not disclosed, Mr Patnaik said that the current price of a similar transhipper would be $50 million.
Other iron ore majors from the region have now expressed interest in such transhippers.
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