Indian Ports Gearing up to Meet Increased Coal Imports

BRISBANE, Australia - April 3, 2013 - PRLog -- In his recent budget speech, the Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, highlighted the projected growth in coal imports.

"Coal imports during the period April-December, 2012 have crossed 100Mt," Mr Chidambaram said.

"It is estimated that imports will rise to 185Mt in 2016-17. If the coal requirements of the existing power plants and the power plants that will come into operation by 31 March 2015 are taken into account, there is no alternative except to import coal and adopt a policy of blending and pooled pricing."

Several of the ports such as Krishnapatnam Port Company Ltd (KPCL), Karaikal Port Private Ltd (KPPL) and Kakinada Sea Ports Ltd (KSP) are gearing up to meet the country's increased import demand, especially of thermal coal, Indian Coal Report learnt during the 12th Coaltrans India Conference held in Goa during March 12-13.

"Krishnapatnam will be India's largest port by the end the current five-year plan period [2016-17]," Ajish Soman, a port official, told Indian Coal Report.

"With 42 berths it will have an annual capacity of 200Mtpa by then."

Mr Soman said most of the port capacity should be used by coal importers. Through February of this year the port had handled about 15Mt of thermal coal that was primarily imported from South Africa and Indonesia.

"With the end of the current financial year, coal import at this port will be close to 16Mt," he said, and several power plants getting commissioned in the vicinity of the port would definitely take this figure up considerably in the coming financial years.

Krishnapatnam is an all-weather port in the state of Andhra Pradesh, about 180km north of Chennai. It was built with a total investment of US$3B by Navayuga Group. The port commenced operation in July 2008 and has 12 berths in use. Two are coal-dedicated berths. It has coal storage plots connected to seven dedicated coal railway sidings.

For the second phase the port has put aside a capital outlay of US$740M. It will add four dedicated coal berths with two ship unloaders per berth, each with capacity of 2,000 tonnes per hour.

Krishnapatnam is also the deepest draft port in the country with capacity of 18.5m alongside the berth.

"This attracts bigger ships to the port. Now ships carrying as much as 160kt of coal can easily come to the port. We are planning to increase the drafting capacity to 21m in 2-3 years so that ships with 240kt of coal can also come to the port," Mr Soman said.

In August last year the port had achieved a new world record by discharging more than 122kt of coal in a day using conventional unloading system in the form of advanced mobile harbour cranes.

Karaikal Port is another privately-owned port bracing to benefit from the increased coal imports.

This port, about 300km south of Chennai, has been operating since 2009. Of the planned nine berths in three stages of development, five are operational. Four of them can handle Panamax size vessels carrying 125kt.

Last fiscal year it handled 6Mt of import, about 80% of it coal.

Sandip Nimje, business development manager with the port told Indian Coal Report: "This financial year we expect that the total import of coal at this port will touch about 5.5Mt."

He said the port would have a total annual cargo handling capacity of about 50Mt after the US$259M expansion plan expected to be complete by 2017.

The port has consistently achieved coal discharge rates of about 30kt of coal per day. It recently achieved record discharge of 60kt of coal in a day.

With an 8Mtpa mechanised coal handling facility, Kakinada is yet another port in the eastern coast of the country preparing to meet the surge in coal imports.

"The fifth coal-dedicated berth in Kakinada port will be operational from May this year," said M. Murali Krishna, GM of business development and logistics with the port.

The berth will have a stockpile capacity of 1.04Mt. It will have a ship unloading capacity of 2,400 tonnes per hour, with coal blending capacity of 1,800 tonnes per hour. The berth will handle both thermal and coking coal.

With two rail sidings, the port will have a wagon loading capacity of 1,800 tonnes per hour.

"The terminal will have a mechanised coal blending system, probably the first such system to be available in an east coast India port," Mr Krishna said.

For more news and analysis on the Indian coal and power industry, subscribe to Energy Publishing’s Indian Coal Report.  With staff on the ground in India and the benefit of experienced journalists and analysts across the Asia Pacific region, the Indian Coal Report offers the latest news, in-depth analysis, market briefs and freight indices.  Contact us at epi.coalinfo@ihs.com or visit http://coalportal.com/ for a free trial subscription.