The Hindu Business Line : Ore export thru Chennai port — `Cargo should act as catalyst for chartering ships'

THE Shipping Ministry has categorically stated that iron ore cargo exported through the Chennai port should act as the catalyst for chartering ships and not the other way round, as the port has been witnessing recently.

"Iron ore cargo should act as the catalyst for chartering ships and the ships should not be the catalyst for getting the cargo," the Shipping Secretary, Mr D.T. Joseph, told Business Line.

Referring to the recent phenomenon of ships arriving and waiting at the port's anchorage for days incurring huge demurrage costs to lift the iron ore cargo, Mr Joseph said this was presenting a wrong picture of the country to the world and that too for no fault of the port trust. "I won't allow this to happen," he stated.

"I also don't agree with the exporters' argument that the demurrage costs are paid by Chinese buyers and so why should the Indian exporter bother about this while chartering ships for carrying the iron ore," Mr Joseph said. The issue is not who is paying the demurrages, the issue is why should ships come and wait at the anchorage for days for the exporter to line up the cargo.

The Shipping Secretary said he had counted 15 ships waiting at the port when he visited Chennai last month. "I had given an ultimatum to the exporters then to sort out the problem in 48 hours, failing which I told them that the Ministry would issue an order," he revealed.

The eight iron ore exporters then came up with a formula involving allocation of railway rakes which was submitted to the Government duly signed by all the members.

Based on rake allocation formula, the Shipping Ministry had issued an order in early February this year directing the port trust to work out sequencing of ships and berths and allocation of plots for aggregating the iron ore cargo for exports for the first quarter of the next fiscal starting April 1.

The port was also told not to entertain any ships after February 8, when the order was issued, till the congestion was solved.

In line with the suggestion made by the exporters, the Shipping Ministry has also fixed the rake quota for exporters according to which MMTC would get 3.5 rakes, MSPL 1.4, NMDC 0.8, Sesa Goa 0.8, TML 0.5 and others one.

The exporters were also directed to charter and bring the vessels to the port only 10 days after one full shipload of cargo is available for loading at the plot.