The 12 major ports in the country witnessed 43.96 percent rise in the handling of thermal coal cargo at 19 million tonne (mn t) during Apr-Jun 2013 from the year-ago period. This include mostly the import of thermal coal for power plants in the country.
At a time when growth in the general cargo volume is stagnant across all major ports, the rise in the import of coal by domestic power producers may provide relief for these ports, reports indicate.
India has to rely on import of coal because of the considerable increase in the thermal power capacity and the stagnant production of domestic coal. This is despite the fact that India holds 10 percent of the worldÂ’s coal reserves.
Besides, high ash content inflates production costs for Indian utilities using local coal. The Central Electricity Authority has set a target of importing 82 mn t of coal in 2013-14. And NTPC, IndiaÂ’s biggest power utility, alone will import about 20 mn t of coal to tide over the shortfall in domestic supplies.
During Apr-Jun 2013, Ennore handled 5.3 mn t of thermal coal during the first quarter, up from 3.48 mt a year earlier.
Higher thermal coal volumes helped Ennore Port in Tamil Nadu and Paradip port in Orissa clock growth rates of 48.44 percent and 44.79 percent, respectively, in the first quarter over the previous year.
Coal cargo handled at Ennore port rose after a court banned Chennai port, located a few kilometre away, from handling “dusty” cargo such as iron ore and coal.
Coal shipments through Paradip port rose to 6.84 mn t from 4.33 mn t in the same period last year. Kandla port, IndiaÂ’s biggest cargo handler, shipped 1.73 mn t of thermal coal, up from 709,000 tonne a year ago.
And New Mangalore port, located in Karnataka, handled 1.1 mn t of thermal coal during the first quarter. In the same period last year, New Mangalore did not handle any thermal coal at all.
During the period under consideration, private ports located at Mundra, Pipavav and Krishnapatnam also handled more coal shipments.
Rising demand for the commodity has spurred the construction of new coal terminals at Visakhapatnam, Mormugao, Paradip and VO Chidambaranar ports to handle more of the cargo.
The increase in the volume of thermal coal cargo has to some extent compensated for the decline in the iron ore export volume.
Iron ore export volume declined across major ports following the allegation of illegal mining and the subsequent ban on mining activities in some southern states like Karnataka, Odisha, Goa.
In July 2011, Supreme Court imposed a blanket ban on mining in the mineral-rich Bellary-Hospet belt in Karnataka to check environmental damage arising from rampant illegal mining. The court extended the ban in August 2011 to cover Chitradurga and Tumkur districts in Karnataka, hampering output and hurting exports from the worldÂ’s third largest supplier of the steel-making material.
Karnataka used to be IndiaÂ’s second largest producer of iron ore. The court subsequently imposed a ban on iron-ore mining in Goa, hurting Mormugao port.
Iron ore was the chief commodity handled at Mormugao in 2010-11, with the 40.35 mn t of the commodity accounting for about 80 percent of total volume.
During Apr-Jun 2013, Mormugao port couldnÂ’t handle any iron ore at all owing to the ban on mining. That saw overall cargo volume drop sharply in the first quarter to 2.67 mn t from 9.76 mn t a year earlier, a decline of 72.65 percent.
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