With over Rs.9,000 crore projects lined up by major ports in India, the requirement for equipment is likely to see a CAGR of 15 per cent in the next four-five years. Though the global economy continues to limp along, India still seems to be a promising growth story. The country´s demand for goods and services is based on domestic consumption, offering great growth potential for businesses. This demand will propel industrial activity, requiring more handling of goods and raw materials. Industry players believe that the port equipment industry would see a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of approximately 15 per cent in the next four-five years. With massive investments planned in India´s ports and roads sector, the improvement in infrastructure will boost the country´s economy. These investments also include the modernisation and upgrade of existing equipment at ports to improve the efficiency in cargo handling, to remain competitive in a globally competitive market. This year´s budget highlights steps in this direction, along with building new ports along India´s east and west coasts.
Praveen Waychal, General Manager- Sales & Services, Cargoteck, says that there will be increase in requirement for equipment including quay cranes, RTGs, straddle carriers, shuttle carriers, reachstackers, empty container handlers, forklifts, terminal tractors, automatic stacking cranes, Bromma spreaders, and Navis terminal operating systems.
The upcoming Inland Container Depots (ICDs) and Container Freight Stations (CFSs) to be set up by government and private ports, faster inland transportation projects like DFCC, construction of new berths at ports and new SEZs will drive the demand for port equipment.
WHAT LIES IN THE WEST Kandla Port has taken a lead as far as mechanisation is concerned, under the Sagarmala Project. The port has envisaged Rs.300 crore for this initiative. Kandla is augmenting its fertiliser handling capacity from 6 MTPA to 8 MTPA, that will entail around Rs.200 crore of capital expenditure.
According to a source from the port, who works for its engineering department, Kandla Port has proposed fully mechanised facilities at its existing Berth 6, that will include mechanised unloading of finished fertilisers from ship to shore, conveyance to transit storage in bulk, transfer to bagging shed, subsequent transportation of bagged fertiliser to railway loading platforms and finally loading into closed railway wagons for dispatch to the hinterland.
The port is also investing Rs.100 crore to provide a mechanised system for barge handling comprising barge unloaders with associated movable hopper, connected conveyor system to the stackyard where the material is stacked using elevated tripper, transit storage area and taking of additional spur rail lines to the proposed stack yard. For this project, the port will be acquiring 49.42 acres of land.
One of the major ports in India, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), has also envisaged `200 crore port modernisation plans. The port has proposed stacking areas adjacent to rail sidings with nested RMGCs and Rubber tired gantry cranes (RTGs). The storage area in this yard will be utilised for aggregation and separation of ICD traffic.
In terms of procurement, JNPT will be procuring two mooring buoys for arrangement of ship anchorage during rough weather conditions.
JNPT´s port planning and development department says that for this project, steel mooring buoys with quick release hooks and triple anchor system of mooring, could be placed on the northwestern edge of the port´s anchorage, off Nhava Island. The entire arrangement is to be designed, constructed and installed for handling 125,000 DWT vessels for container, dry bulk, liquid cargo and project cargo, etc.
Mumbai Port, always living in the shadow of JNPT, is finally anchoring its place in the maritime map of India. Says SD Aserkar, Chief Engineer, Mumbai Port Trust, ´The port management has mopped up Rs.150 crore for deepening the approach channel to the second chemical berth from JD 1 berth. The existing channel is proposed to be deepened to -10 MCD from the existing -9.0 MCD. The proposal also includes deepening the turning circle in front of the berth up to û10 MCD.´
SOUTH ON A ROLL Meanwhile, Kamarajar Port is taking dredging work seriously these days. Says V Krishnaswamy, GM (CS & BD), to fulfill the dredging requirement of the proposed berths i.e., Marine Liquid Terminal-2, Container Terminal Phase-2, General Cargo Berth-2, and BulkTerminal-1, the port has kept aside Rs.300 crore.
VO Chidambaranar Port, Tuticorin, aims to improve the utilisation of the full capacity of NCB1.
Technically, this berth has a capacity of 8 to 8.5 MT. Against this, the actual requirement of NLC Tamil Nadu Power Ltd (NTPL) is only 6 MT, thus leaving a spare capacity of 2 to 2.5 MT. The port and NTPL may utilise the spare capacity of this berth by way of putting up a take-off conveyor from the transfer tower, near the port boundary. This may earn additional revenue to both port and NTPL. The port aims to spend around Rs.760 crore on this project.
Subsequently, with a total outlay of Rs.250 crore, the port will be equipped with two ship unloaders of 2,000 TPH each and the capacity of the existing conveyor system will be enhanced from 2,000 TPH to 4,000 TPH. The project proposes upgradation of the TNEB CJ-II coal jetty at VOC Port. The port capacity for handling coal after the proposed mechanised coal handling facility at CJ-II shall be 8-8.5 MTPA.
Visakhapatnam Port Trust proposes the development of an additional stack yard for Vizag General Cargo Berth Private Ltd VGCB to increase the terminal capacity at the port. VGCB has a capacity of 10 MMTPA to handle Cape-size vessels. It is presently handling about 7 MMTPA because of shortage of back-up area. This additional stack yard will increase its capacity by about 4 MMTPA. An area of about 16 hectares is to be developed as a coal stack yard with three rows of stock piles and equipped with stackers and reclaimers to achieve a storage capacity of 0.52 MT.
Another major port, Chennai Port Trust, is developing a mechanised food grain handling facility. According to the management, the potential for coastal import of food grains through Chennai Port has been assessed as 4.5 MMTPA. Hence, it is proposed to take up mechanisation of food grain handling facilities at Chennai Port to ensure speedy and clean operations. The mechanised food grain handling facility will include a mobile tyre-mounted grain unloader, and a closed pipe conveyor which will lead to the storage silos. The evacuation of stored grains from the silos will be through an automatic grain evacuator and an automatic bagging machine; the bags will be directly loaded on to trucks, without any manual handling. Around Rs.120 crore has been envisaged for the facility.
In addition, projecting increasing in import of fertilizers by 2025, Chennai Port will set up a mechanised fertilizer handling facility. This would enable efficient handling of material with faster turnaround of ships and increased berth capacity. The mechanised fertilizer handling facility will be made up of a screw type unloader at berth, a closed conveyor belt system on the rear side of the berth and silos for stacking. The silos envisaged will be storage bins of about 2,000 tonnes capacity. It is proposed that the Berth Q7 may be used for the purpose with the backup area available to put up the bin/silo storage and bagging facility.
New Mangalore Port Trust also proposes development of a mechanised fertilizer handling facility. With an estimated cost of `155 crore, this would enable efficient handling of material with faster turnaround of ships and increased berth capacity. While providing details, MR Hedaoo, Chief Engineer, NMPT, highlighted that the mechanised fertilizer handling facility would be made up of unloaders (or mobile harbour cranes) at berth with connected hopper, conveyor belt to feed fertilizer into covered storage facilities and thereafter to the mechanised bagging plant having automatic bagging and stitching machines. One of the existing berths could be utilised for this purpose.
EASTERN ACTION In the meantime, Paradip Port Trust, a self proclaimed ´mother of all ports´ has a whopping Rs.1,100 crore plan. The port has planned full mechanisation of its two operational berths in the central quay to handle coal imports of 20 MMTPA. The terminal will have dedicated stack yards, closed conveyor systems with stackers, reclaimers and ship unloaders for fully mechanised facilities. The project will be initiated in FY17-18.
In addition, Paradip Port will also enhance its iron ore handling capabilities. K Ramachandra Rao, Chief Engineer, says, ´We have planned a Rs.175-crore overhaul of the existing iron ore handling plant. However, the plant is equipped with conveyor system (3,000 MTPH for iron Ore); 1,000 MTPH (thermal coal), stacker-cum-reclaimer (3,000 TPH), reclaimer (3,000 TPH for iron ore), and wagon tippler.´
The port has started a feasibility study with MECON to carry out capacity expansion of the Mechanised Coal Handling Plant (MCHP) stack yard for additional coal storage. This measure will increase the capacity of the stack yard from 0.97 MT to 1.45 MT and terminal capacity from 24 MTPA to 36 MTPA. The cost will be a whopping Rs.200 crore.
Kolkata Port Trust´s Haldia Dock Berth 3 will be mechanised with two mobile harbour cranes with integrated hoppers, a conveyor system at stack yard with stacker-reclaimers and wagon loader. With these, S Mukhopadhyay, GM (Engineering), says that the berth may handle 3 MMTPA. And it could be further enhanced to 4 to 4.5 MMTPA by reducing the dwell time.
It is expected that Rs.150 crore will be assigned for this project. Meanwhile, KoPT will be undertaking a feasibility study shortly.
TECHNOLOGY & TRENDS Vessel sizes are growing bigger and bigger, which leads to new challenges for ports around the world. Suddenly, ports which are not located along the main routes are faced with the arrival of bigger vessels and the need to invest in new equipment. For these ports, according to Sunil Kalra, Divisional Manager - Maritime Cranes, Liebherr, ´Mobile harbour cranes represent a great solution as they - besides their efficiency - can ease capacity bottlenecks throughout the port, thanks to their mobility.´
To an extent, Kalra is right as the mobile harbour crane sector is a very innovative one. New technologies are introduced in the market on a regular basis. In June 2014, Liebherr introduced SmartGrip for its mobile harbor crane range. This unique technology operates as an intelligent system which optimises grab filling rates in a self-learning manner.
In addition, players like Sany are also focusing on better human and electronic interface, highest level of safety, advanced protection systems, intelligent control system & maintenance and fault diagnosis system, among others. The company is providing advanced state-of-the-art control and diagnosis system, movable counterweight for better stability, advanced safety features and superior operational speeds for better productivity and efficiency.
Conclusion In line with the growing trend in container traffic, major port operators and equipment players are gearing up for capacity expansion and introduction of new technologies and solutions. However, despite having the potential, India faces the challenge of limited resources of indigenous manufacturing in this field.
The industry needs to work hard to create ´Made in India´ port machinery and harness the ample potential in coming years. A conducive environment backed with funds is in place for enabling the growth of container traffic in the country. Now the onus is on equipment suppliers and logistics companies as to how they strategically position themselves to convert their respective visions into reality.
- Ship-to-shore gantry crane - Portal crane - Level luffing crane - Mobile crane Stacking, Storage and Re-handling
- Reach stacker - High reach forklift - Rubber tyred gantry - Rail mounted gantry - Top handler - Straddle carrier - Automatic stacking crane - Empty container handler Transportation logistics - Forklift - Yard tractor - Terminal tractor - Shuttle carrier - Variable reach truck - Self-loading and unloading side loader - RoRo tractor - Automatic guided vehicle
- RAHUL KAMAT