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| Saturday, 31 January 2004 |
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Letter : Mumbai port operates above capacity while Colombo operates below capacity in 2003 A somewhat disturbing trend is, that in 2003, Nhava Sheva container terminal in Mumbai operated well above designed capacity, while the 3 container terminals of Colombo - JCT, SAGT & Unity Terminals, with capacity of 3.4 million TEU's, handled only 1.9 TEU's in 2003. This compares with 1,732,855 TEU's in 2000 and 1,726,605 in 2001. The composition of the 1.9 million TEU's said to have been handled in Colombo in 2003, is a closely guarded secret. It would indeed be helpful and necessary for economic planners, (including port planners) to know the breakdown namely, how many domestic containers, how many empty containers and how many containers were re-stowed by the port. Port charges $148 per TEU on Sri Lanka's exports and imports which are handled only once (from the truck or yard to the ship) but the charges on transshipment containers which are handled twice is only $ 74 per TEU. In addition generous rebates are given to the lines on the volumes. The Port of Mumbai has established new records in cargo throughput and vessel turn round time in 2003. The 2 container terminals are operated by P&O and Javaharlal Nehru Port Trust. Despite several difficulties such as, worker unrest, equipment and manpower shortages, the two operators have handled two million TEU's in 2003. Owing to an export boom in India, the port was heavily congested and a 3rd terminal is being built to handle the increasing volumes. Besides Bombay, the other ports in India which handle containerised cargo have also recorded increases. The ports are Chennai, Cochin and Tuticorin. It is important to bear in mind that these increases have been made without any rebates to shipping lines, as Colombo has been doing to attract more lines and more transshipment cargo. - Port Watcher, Katubedda |
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