Cochin to Grant Transshipment Concessions

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

31 May 2010

India’s Port of Cochin will offer concessions on vessel-related charges for mainline container vessels calling at its International Container Transshipment Terminal, the country’s first transshipment facility being developed by DP World on a build-operate-transfer basis.
The move is aimed at lowering operational costs to remain competitive with leading transshipment hubs in the region, after a recent hike in rates threatened to ruin prospects for the new terminal scheduled to open on Aug. 1.
“The emergence of Cochin as a transshipment hub for India and gateway to southern India hinges on the competitive advantage it can offer to the global container trade vis-a-vis the major transshipment ports in the region,” the port authority said in a statement.
Officials said the concessional tariff scheme would apply to mainline vessels serving ports in the U.S., Europe, Africa, Australia and China. Similarly, the Dubai operator would also allow concessions on terminal-handling charges for transshipment containers, despite having received approval for a rate increase.
The $500-million ICTT, covering a 600-meter quay, draft of 14.5 meters, and deployment of 15 rubber-tired gantry cranes and six super post-Panamax ship-to-shore cranes, will have an annual capacity of 1 million 20-foot equivalent units in the first phase.
A sizeable portion of Indian containers are currently transshipped through the ports of Colombo, Singapore and Salalah, with additional costs for the trade, and the authority is hoping that ICTT will help it capture traffic relayed over these foreign ports.
Cochin earlier initiated a number of steps to boost throughput, but failed to attract any regular mainline calls primarily because of frequent labor unrest and high port charges coupled with inadequate infrastructure.

Source: Journal of Commerce