Congestion leads to low productivity at Kochi

The onset of the southwest monsoon and the peak West Africa raw cashew imports season have resulted in a drop in productivity levels at the container terminal of Kochi port to an all-time low of around 80-90 moves a shift from the earlier figures of 110-120, reported The Hindu.

Sources in the shipping fraternity pointed out that the Rajiv Gandhi Container Terminal is lacking adequate space for storage of raw cashew transhipment containers meant for Tuticorin and Mangalore ports, which are discharged from mainline vessels from West African ports.

Though the space crunch is an annual phenomenon, the shipping circles alleged that the terminal operator is not taking any serious steps to overcome the problem since the Vallarpadam terminal is expected to commence operations shortly.

This has also resulted in delay in vessel movements calling at the port. Besides, feeder vessels, which tranship containers to Colombo for onward shipments on mainliners to various destinations, are unable to connect those transhipment containers on to the designated mainliners.

The sources also attributed the reasons for the delay to frequent equipment failures in the terminal and slow movement of import-laden containers lying in the terminal for many months.
They had also suggested that the present situation in the terminal could be resolved by shifting such long-staying containers to the nearby Concor yard or any other private CFS notified by the Customs Department.

This would improve the productivity and turnaround of vessels calling at Kochi.

Port operator DP World said that this year's season of cashew imports from East Africa has seen a surge in volume and Kochi had a record monthly handling of over 30,000 TEUs in May and July.

However, the terminal yard has a capacity of 3,000 TEUs and on account of the growth in volume, the terminal has an average yard holding of over 5,000 TEUs. Moreover, the marketing initiatives adopted by the company have also resulted in the arrival of more number of mainlines with transhipment containers bound for Tuticorin and Mangalore to Kochi port.
(Source:www.cargonewsasia.com)