Port Pipavav commences wheat shipments for govt of India
The first consignment of wheat for 2012, on behalf of the government of India (GoI), was exported from Port Pipavav on September 20. The vessel m.v. Spar Canis sailed from the Port with a total of 36,750.082 tonnes of wheat on board. The cargo is being exported by the GoI to Pt. Indofood Sukses in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Starting September 2012, Port Pipavav has undertaken to handle a new bulk cargo commodity—wheat. It has tied up with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to handle part of its wheat exports. The cargo is being stored at Central Warehousing Corporation warehouses. The channelising agent on behalf of FCI was MMTC and the trading partner Louis Dreyfus.
Despite heavy rains, the operations team achieved a much higher rate of loading than committed and reduced the turnaround time for the vessel by 26 hours.
"This is an important milestone for us. We were keen to deliver high levels of customer satisfaction to FCI, MMTC and Louis Drefyus," said Capt. Dinesh Lokapure, Head of Bulk Business at APM Terminals Pipavav. "Handling wheat cargo calls for a number of special arrangements and extra effort to maintain professional and efficient movement and I am glad that my team achieved excellent results."
Appreciating the efficient handling of cargo, Mr Raman from Louis Drefyus said: "Our congratulations on smooth and efficient handling of the wheat shipment. The performance has been above our expectations. We are definitely looking at Port Pipavav as one of the gateway ports for our bulk export shipments."
Port Pipavav handles coal, fertilisers, iron ore, scrap and other bulk commodities. New storage space and equipment have been added to handle wheat henceforth. The port is expanding its infrastructure facilities and in the forthcoming years, the following projects will be completed:
For container cargo:
- A new container berth of 348 m to provide contiguous berth of 735 m—this will enable the Port to
simultaneously handle two post-Panamax vessels
- Dredging in berth pockets
- Acquisition of 3 new post-Panamax cranes, 10 new rubber-tyred gantry cranes
- Yard capacity for a total of 1.5 million TEUs
- Internal roads
For bulk cargo:
- New container berth will enable the Port to dedicate the existing multi-purpose berth exclusively for bulk cargo services
- Additional berth extension by 110 m to provide a contiguous berth of 800 m
- Dredging
- New Gottwald crane
- Dedicated conveyor system for coal
The proposed expansion activities for bulk cargo will be undertaken based on need, by entering into commercial arrangements with customers.
Source : Exim News Service - Pipavav, Sept. 23
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