Chennai Port to push for more non-containerised cargo in bid to boost trade
Chennai Port, one of the country’s major container ports, has been expanding its focus and has now begun initiatives to draw more non-container cargo and encourage new trade through the port.
Officials of Chennai Port Authority said the port, which launched the Non-Containerised Cargo Incentive Scheme (NCCS) in June this year, has gradually begun handling new non-containerised cargo with this initiative. For instance, in recent times, the port has handled 13,208 metric tonnes of pig iron (commonly known as crude iron), 80,000 tonnes of rice, 15,000 tonnes of pulses, and 17,000 tonnes of steel billet.
Due to the impact of the conflict in West Asia, container traffic in the port had taken a hit and registered a dip. To overcome this loss and increase the revenue streams, the port wanted to attract a diverse mix of cargo and the NCCS was launched, sources said. The NCCS will provide the port a competitive advantage and increase the volume of cargo handled by the port by pulling new cargo.
“The port has nearly 65% of container traffic, 28% is liquid bulk (crude oil and petroleum products), and the rest is dry bulk (products including barytes, gypsum, fertilisers) or break bulk (products, including grains, granite blocks, and steel coils). Over the years, there has been some decline in dry and break bulk, and we wanted to retain existing firms and attract new firms by incentivising those who are coming to the Chennai Port for handling non-containerised cargo and that is the NCCS scheme,” an official said.
Under the NCCS scheme, when a new firm imports or exports through Chennai Port or a firm (which already handles non-containerised cargo through the port) brings incremental cargo, then the wharfage fee (cargo handling charges) gets reduced by up to 80 per cent based on eligibility.
Also, when an existing firm handles 95 per cent of the cargo handled in the last financial year, then they get an additional loyalty bonus equivalent to 10 per cent.
They have been holding meetings with the stakeholders too to draw more non-containerised cargo to the port.
