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Govt relaxes cabotage rules to boost transhipment

Business Standard
To promote transhipment at Indian ports, the Union shipping ministry has allowed some relaxations in cabotage rules. Cabotage is the transport of goods or passengers between two places in the same country, usually along a coast. Transhipment is the movement of goods and containers to an intermediate destination, usually to be transferred to another place on another mode of transport. At present, Indian ports are not popular transhipment destinations, losing out to Colombo, Dubai or Singapore. Now, ports with less than 50 per cent of its cargo being containers can become transhipment hubs. This will be applicable to Exim-laden or empty containers only. Any new or existing container port handling transhipment traffic can apply for the relaxation to the Directorate General of Shipping, said the ministry. The directorate general will grant a relaxation for a year for an old port and two years for a new one.

Govt to speed up port clearances

Times of India
The government is lining up a series of steps to cut the time for clearing export and import consignments by half and help reduce the transaction time for Indian traders. A World Bank study has ranked India 133rd among over 180 countries in trading across borders. An exporter on an average spends nearly 150 hours or over six days in completing documentary and border compliance rules including clearances from port, customs and other regulatory formalities to get his consignment cleared, while for importers the time taken is close to 380 hours or nearly 16 days. Although the customs authorities maintained that the Ease of Doing Business Rankings overstate the problem, the Narendra Modi government has started moving ahead to reform the systems. A cabinet secretary-appointed panel headed by commerce secretary Rita Teaotia, which met on Tuesday.

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Govt to sell 5% stake in Concor tomorrow; may get Rs 1,165 crore

DNA
Government on Wednesday to sell 5% stake in Container Corporations of India (Concor) at a base price of Rs 1,195 a piece, which may fetch it an estimated Rs 1,165 crore. The floor price for the Offer For Sale (OFS) is 2.58% below the company's current share price, which closed at Rs 1,226.65 on the BSE on Tuesday. In a regulatory filing, the company said the government will sell up to 97,48,710 shares, representing 5% stake, tomorrow for non-retail investors, while retail investors can bid in the share sale a day after. "20% of the offer size shall be reserved for retail investors," the filing said. Retail investors would be allocated shares at a 5% discount to the cut-off price. Such investors can bid for shares worth up to Rs 2 lakh. "No single bidder other than mutual funds and insurance companies shall be allocated more than 25% of the offer shares," the company said.

Just not enough, gripe exporters

Business Standard
Exporters, while waiting for the global downturn in commodities to pass, feel the government could have done more in the recent Union Budget to stem the continuous slide in export. Merchandise export fell in January for a 14th month in a row. Major foreign exchange earners such as petroleum products and engineering items continue to contract, due to softening prices and subdued demand globally. Trade experts warn against optimism for February, too, with China’s services and manufacturing growth in decline. While the recent Budget scores on socio-economic and infrastructure spending, plus more ‘ease in doing business’ the FIEO is disappointed at the lack of immediate relief. Only widening the scope of duty drawback and the promise to continue supporting exporters through earlier declared incentives like interest subvention and the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme was not enough, it said.

Lenders may sell majority stake in ABG Shipyard

Live Mint
Lenders to ABG Shipyard Ltd are in talks with an investor to sell a majority stake in India’s largest private shipbuilding company as part of the strategic debt restructuring (SDR) invoked by them in December, according to two bankers familiar with the development. “There are not too many buyers that have come up for this stake buy as the shipping sector is presently going through a tough period. We are in talks with a financial investor from Vietnam for a majority stake sale,” said one of the bankers cited above, requesting anonymity as the talks are confidential. ABG Shipyard’s executive director and chief financial officer did not respond to calls and text messages seeking comments. The SDR was invoked after the firm did not find a potential strategic investor on its own, said the second banker cited above.

MSC adds Hazira to India-Africa service

JOC
Mediterranean Shipping Co. has expanded the port rotation of its India-South Africa service by introducing a direct call at Hazira, a privately-operated cargo complex on India’s west coast, in an attempt to pick up additional hinterland cargo. The fixed-day, weekly service employs a fleet of six vessels, each with a capacity of around 6,500 twenty-foot-equivalent units. The MSC Valencia, voyage IZ 611R, will make the first call at Adani Hazira Container Terminal on April 9, the Geneva-based carrier said in a trade advisory. The upgraded port rotation will be as follows: Salalah, Oman; Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates; Bin Qasim, Pakistan; Mundra, Nhava Sheva (Jawaharlal Nehru Port) and Hazira, India; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Port Louis, Mauritius; Durban and Coega, South Africa; and back to Salalah. The new mainline call adds further momentum to Hazira’s rapidly rising volume growth.

Master planning takes off for port based zone at Dhamra

Business Standard
The state government has initiated the task of preparing the master plan for developing a port based manufacturing zone at Dhamra. The cost of developing infrastructure for the proposed zone is pegged at Rs 3,100 crore. Of this, the Government of India is set to contribute Rs 1,844 crore while the balance Rs 1,256 crore will be borne by the state government The zone is planned on 7,500 acres of land. "The master plan is being prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). It is expected to be readied in three months", said a government official. Pilot project has been approved by the Department of Economic Affairs, Government of India as port based manufacturing zone under PPP (public private partnership) for Regional Integrated Development of Enterprises. It is envisioned as an economic hub for port based manufacturing enterprises in the Asia-Pacific region.

VPT proposes elevated corridor from VCTPL to Convent Junction

The Hindu
Visakhapatnam Port Trust has mooted construction of an elevated freight corridor from VCTPL near Fishing Harbour to Convent Junction to decongest city roads. A flyover up to a length of eight km is proposed to decongest traffic via Three Horse Junction, St. Aloysius School Junction and seven-metre high compound wall of the port. “The funding for the project will be sought under Sagarmala project,” VPT Chairman M.T. Krishna Babu told The Hindu. According to preliminary estimates, the project will involve an expenditure of Rs. 200 crore. The five-road connecting Convent Junction has been identified as an accident-prone area due to heavy traffic. Once heavy vehicles carrying freight are separated, it will pave the way for free flow of traffic. Mr. Krishna Babu said Sagarmala, one of the thrust areas of the Central government, aims at reducing logistic cost by strengthening linkages for faster evacuation of cargo.

Barc innovation to help biodegradation of perishable cargo

Business Standard
A solution developed by premier research establishment Barc is all set to help the logistics sector tackle the problem of dealing with abandoned containers having perishable cargo. Barc has tied up with APM Terminals Inland Services South Asia for implementing the solution, a statement said today. "Container freight stations and inland container depots witness frequent cases of abandonment of containers carrying perishable cargo like chocolates, fruits, vegetables, nuts, spices, meat and beverages," it said. The "in-situ biodegradation" developed by Barc scientists enables natural decomposition of stale perishable cargo within the container right inside the container freight station, as against the requirement of transporting the cargo to a specially approved facility, it said. The solution also restricts the carbon dioxide emissions, it added.

Chennai port to be made preferred cruise destination

Deccan Chronicle
The Union shipping and tourism ministries initiative to develop cruise and coastal tourism is likely to place the Chennai port in an unenviable position in terms of attracting greater cruise traffic in the coming months. Aiming to roll out red carpet to receive scores of visitors from the sea, the authorities have developed the Cruise Passenger Facilitation Centre at the existing Passenger Terminal at Chennai Port at a cost of Rs 16.72 crores provided by the Union tourism ministry. The terminal which will become operational from this April has numerous facilities including escalators, passport baggage scanners, duty free shops, media centres, customs and immigration clearance facilities, first aid and food court facilities.

New import duty likely to hit cashew kernel exports

Financial Express
The export of cashew kernel from India is likely to suffer further with the recent Budget imposing an import duty on raw cashew. The domestic cashew industry is already under stress with the Union government reducing export incentives from 5% to 3 % some time earlier. India produces 6-7 million tonne (mt) of raw cashew per annum and was until recently the leading supplier of kernels to the global market. India has to import more than half of its requirement of raw cashew due to the poor productivity of its cashew plantations. Indian productivity is lower by three to four times of Vietnam’s. The Budget has imposed a 9.36% duty on the import of raw cashew nuts that comes into effect from March 1. This is the first time that raw cashew has been subjected to import duty.