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Kolkata: It is nearly 10 days now since several foreign shipping lines slapped congestion surcharge at Jawaharlal Nehru Port but the port authorities and the container train operators serving the port deny there is congestion, and therefore delays.
In a statement, the port authorities have said the average dwelling time of import boxes in three container terminals, namely JNPT Container Terminal, Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal and Gateway Terminals India, is well within the free storage period limits.
Inquiries with container train operators reveal that as on Thursday, the pendency was 3,890 TEUs, comprising 2,781 TEUs on account of Container Corporation of India and another 1,109 TEUs on account of private train operators. Of these, more than 2,000 containers will be evacuated during the course of the day, leaving 1,800 containers or so.
The three vessels due to arrive at the port will unload another 1,400 TEUs or so bringing the pendency to 3,200 TEUs, it is learnt.
On Friday, another 22/23 trains will be operated (19 rakes by Concor and another three to four rakes by private operators), evacuating another 2,000 boxes, which means the pendency will get further reduced.
“Ideally, the pendency should be 5,000/6,000 TEUs, i.e, two-and-a-half to three days' stock, otherwise, we may have to run empty rakes after some days,” observe sources close to container train operators.
“Except for a handful, we're not getting full rake loads of cargo for most of our inland container depots (ICDs),” said a spokesman for Concor.
Motives behind surcharge?
On Wednesday, Concor had full rake loads for the ICDs located at Tughlakabad, Dadri, Nagpur, Sabarmati and New Mulund, it was pointed out.
Congestion certainly could not be the reason for slapping congestion surcharge at JNPT because there is no congestion at the port, emphasise trade sources. Nor has there been any evacuation bottleneck. The lines must be having some other reason, to cover up the losses they suffer elsewhere due to various reasons including the imbalance in import and export containers, they say.
Maersk Line joined other major carriers in applying congestion surcharge from July 20 at the rates of $60 per TEU and $120 per FEU and 40-ft high-cube for cargo discharged at JNPT and bound for inland container depots from there.
For US trade, the surcharges will be effective from August 16, it is learnt. OOCL, APL, NYK, Hyundai Merchant Marine and Wan Hai recently levied $150/TEU and $300/FEU for all inbound containers shipped through the port.
The latest to join the bandwagon is Coscon which proposes to implement a surcharge of $150/TEU on all shipments between Nhava Sheva and North-West Europe and Mediterranean from August 15.
Source: The Hindu Business Line
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