Biometric ID cards for marine fishermen

After much delay, sea-going marine fishermen in and around Paradip coast have finally been covered under advanced biometric identification cards as a part of coastal security plan. Although the project was envisaged as part of strengthening the coastal surveillance system soon after the terror attacks of 26/11 in Mumbai in 2008, bureaucratic red-tape delayed the commissioning of the project.

The exercise to hand over the biometric identification cards to marine fishermen at their doorsteps has got underway from the Paradip coast. It is for the first time that the sea-going fishermen have been brought under the biometric identification exercise. ‘We distributed about 200 biometric cards to fishermen in a programme held under the joint exercise of Marine Fisheries Wing and Coast Guard’, said Assistant Fisheries (Marine) Officer Subrat Dash. We have targetted to distribute the cards to each of the identified fishermen by this month end, he added.

As many as 37, 870 sea-going fishermen have been enumerated living along Kendrapara-Paradip-Jagatsinghpur coastline. The department is ready with equal number of biometric cards against the enumerated fishermen for distribution. It has been made a mandatory provision for sea-worthy vessels to get armed with a licence and those without ID cards and licences for fishing in these areas are liable for punishment and confiscation of their vessels, officials stated.

Majority of the sea-going vessels in these coastal pockets are registered ones though there are stray cases of unregistered boats ferrying across the sea. For hassle-free availability of licence and permit, the department has introduced on-line registration facility for boat and vessel owners.

While Paradip coast accounts for 1, 100 registered sea-worthy vessels, the neighbouring Kendrapara has about 870 boats and vessels.

As per the directive of Union Ministry of Home Affairs (Internal Security Department), the biometric identification programme has been introduced to provide all the fishermen along the coastal states with advanced biometric identification cards in order to ensure safe roaming in deep waters and help security agencies identify intrusion by anti-national elements.

Lack of coordination between the Government agencies both at the State and Centre has resulted in the inordinate delay in the issuance of ID cards.

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CONCOR move to avoid empty train running

Container Corporation of India Ltd is operating its trains on a triangular route of Tughlakabad-Mundra-Pipavav unlike to-and-fro earlier between Tughlakabad and the two minor ports in Gujarat to reduce its empty running and improve asset utilsation, said an Axis Capital report.

CONCOR is now operating trains from Tughlakabad to Mundra with export volumes and limiting empty running by picking up volumes by moving the same train to Pipavav to pick up import volumes back for Tughlakabad.

“North-based exporters prefer Mundra over Pipavav due to lower lead distance and relatively better facilities and services. Consequently, Mundra’s container volumes are skewed towards exports. Pipavav has higher import volumes while JNPT has relatively balanced mix,” said Ankur Periwal, AVP – logistics, Axis Capital in his report.

While tough times for container train operators like CONCOR and Gateway Distriparks Ltd unlikely to last, Periwal believes that the current volume growth is lack-lustre due to adverse macro and capacity constraints at major ports, while margin is facing pressure due to high empty running.

The recent order by Tariff Authority for Major Ports to cut terminal charges between 12-44% from port-to-port in their respective tariff has restricted the major ports to increase their throughput, resulting in lower volumes and shift towards minor ports in Gujarat.

However, Indian container volumes are expected to grow at two times cargo volumes growth in long term, as container penetration in India is low at 21% of aggregate cargo compared to 60-70% global average, Periwal said.

Over the past 15 years, India’s cargo volumes have grown at half the rate of nominal GDP CAGR of 13.1% while container cargo growth has been double the rate of cargo growth – thus equivalent to India’s nominal GDP growth. The growth in container volumes also stems from the additional capacities at JNPT and Chennai, which account for 75% of container volumes at major ports.

DP World expects to build the mini-terminal at JNPT in the next 18 months with further plans to add 4.8 million TEU capacity to take the total capacity to over 10 million TEUs in long term.

Similarly, Kattupalli terminal at Chennai with a capacity of 1.2 million TEUs is set to address the infrastructure bottlenecks at Chennai’s existing terminals. This terminal is expected to be fully operational by January-March 2014.

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Maersk Line adds 17th ship to its rotation

Maersk Line has announced that its US east coast-Asia TP3 service, operated jointly with CMA-CGM, has added a 17th vessel to the rotation, the 8,242-TEU Albert Maersk, which has already gone into service.

The shipping line said: “This winter season change will add seven days to the east coast US to Asia product that is currently offered, though there will be no impact on the Asia to east coast US, nor the Asia to West Coast US or west coast US to Asia products offered on the butterfly service of Tp9.”

The 17-vessel rotation has commenced with the sailing of the Albert Maersk on Dec. 12 and is expected to continue until March, reported American Shipper. The service will slow steam via the Cape of Good Hope during the slack winter season.

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US shrimp industry urges US for duty to Indian shrimp exports

On Friday, the Coalition of Gulf Shrimp Industries (COGSI) filed a petition with the US Government seeking relief from the subsidized shrimp imports from seven countries which include India. The Executive Director of COGSI, Mr. C .David Veal summed up the essence of their petitions in a single note: “Today’s filing is about the survival of the entire US shrimp industry”.  In a press statement, the COGSI argued that the shrimp producers from these seven countries have captured the US market share and the US shrimp producers could not compete with them because of the “artificially low-priced” imported shrimp; the low-pricing was made possible through heavy subsidies by the governments. Moreover, since shrimp happens to be the major export commodity in all these seven countries, their governments have set specific growth and export targets. The petitioners have documented about 100 programmes that assuredly benefit the shrimp producers in those countries. They seek, ultimately, US to impose countervailing duties (CVD) on shrimp from these countries so that the unfair trade advantage now enjoyed by these countries could be offset.

The US International Trade Commission (USITC) and the Department of Commerce will go into the details of the petitions and the final decisions are expected in the second half of 2013.

USITC will arrive at its findings through questionnaires to be sent to US producers, importers and foreign exporters next week. Being constituted with six commissioners, the majority of four is needed to decide the nature of the vote of USITC. If four vote negatively, the case ends; on the other hand, if the vote is affirmative, the case will continue. Next, the Department of Commerce will continue its own investigation through giving questionnaires to the government and largest packers and will also conduct verification after issuing a preliminary determination of CVD.

Caution is the parent of safety; and, safety is the goal of all.

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KoPT to impose royalty load of INR 25 per tonne on cargo handlers at HDC

It is said that the port, in its history of past 35 years, is imposing a royalty load on the cargo handlers at its facility for the first time; it is also pointed out by the KoPT officials that this would be the first major port in the country that would be charging royalty from cargo handlers. Obviously, the revenue of the Port should have gone down due to the ill-timed exit of ABG-LDA managed Haldia Bulk Terminals from Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) in the middle of the contract. Revenue loss would certainly prove fatal to any business and it must be attended to, at the earliest. According to the KoPT sources, “A committee was set up to decide on the royalty that may be charged from cargo handlers. The Committee decided upon a rate of INR 25 per tonne. This is primarily for shore handling at the Haldia Dock Complex”.  It may be recalled here that KoPT has been criticized for not collecting any money from several cargo handlers operating at HDC from the very inception itself. An official said in this context of imposing such a royalty that they don’t “wish people to believe that we are doing a favour to somebody… The Board of Trustees of the KoPT has cleared this and we are awaiting a nod from the Centre”. This decision serves two purposes: it answers the criticism that the port has not collected so far any money from cargo handlers and, more importantly, it increases the revenue of the port, a much needed move.

A good beginning is half the battle; and, perseverance completes it.

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Ways and means to reduce harmful emissions, BIMCO

Deeply concerned with the adverse impact of the harmful emissions, the international, regional and national laws will have to evolve and adopt the new regulations in the interest of environmental safety. Other than CO2, ships produce some very harmful emissions such as sulphur oxides (Sox) and nitrous oxides (NOx) which are the products of combustion. We have to think of ways and means of reducing these emissions. As for sulphur is concerned, low sulphur oil or distillates can be used which will make a good difference; emissions can be scrubbed to clean them, on the other hand, before they pass into the atmosphere. Or, feasibly enough, liquefied natural gas that burns cleanly can be used. Engine manufacturers also can contribute their share by designing efficient marine engines that burn less fuels thereby producing less of emissions. And, as for NOx is concerned, exhaust gas recirculation can be used; it is a system that does not put in the exhausts direct into the atmosphere, but, instead, it cleans, cools and recirculates the gas back into the engines, thus reducing the amount of NOx that is generated in the combustion chamber. The real challenge is not so much with the new designed ships but with the fleet of ships built according to the regulations that obtained then with the expectation of life-span for 20-25 years. It is possible to “retrofit” exhaust gas cleaning systems to the existing machinery so that they can comply with the tighter emissions control. Though the ships built before certain dates could be allowed to sail through their full span of life , it is quite possible that the pressures from the users of the ships who would like to use cleaner and greener ships might encourage changes for the better.

Fine words butter no parsnips; actions speak louder than words.

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Jebel Ali Port on expansion spree

DP World committed to support Dubai’s position as the region’s leading commercial hub, says Bin Sulayem

In a special ceremony at Jebel Ali, DP World Chairman Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem had formally overseen the installation of the last of the 2752 65 ton blocks that make up the foundation of the extended quay wall of the 1 million TEU (20 foot equivalent container units) expansion of Jebel Ali Container Terminal 2.

The expansion, scheduled to open for business in the second quarter of this year, extends the quay wall by 400 metres to 3000 metres, allowing the simultaneous handling of six 15,000 TEU mega ships, a media statement from DP World has said.

Meanwhile, across the harbour from Terminal 2, work is also well underway on the brand new, state-of-the-art, 4 million TEU capacity Terminal 3, set to open in 2014, taking Jebel Ali’s total capacity to 19 million TEU.

Welcoming the progress made on the expansion work, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Chairman, DP World, said: “DP World’s pipeline of expansion projects and new developments are in line with the industry’s emerging horizons both in terms of capacity and technology. As our flagship facility and the largest port in the Middle East, Jebel Ali has consistently brought efficiency to one of the busiest supply chains in the world. DP World remains committed to supporting Dubai’s unparalleled position as the region’s commercial hub and welcoming the next generation mega container ships.”

Mohammed Al Muallem, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, DP World, UAE Region, stated:

“For well over a year now, DP World, UAE Region, has been handling volumes of more than 1 million TEU every month. With our customers now deploying ultra large container ships (ULCS), Jebel Ali is racing ahead with its capacity expansion to meet their demand. The expansion of Terminal 2 and the development of Terminal 3 will allow us to offer customers not just greater efficiencies but also economies of scale to match changing trade patterns.”

When the expansion work is complete, Jebel Ali Port will be able to handle 10 of the next generation 18,000 TEU mega vessels at the same time – the only port in the region able to do so. The expansions also will create more than 1,000 jobs directly.




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