Most of our major ports are old and do not have adequate draft for large size crude/product tankers. This necessitates costly dead-freighting or lighterage and reduces competitiveness. Hence, port trusts need to develop deeper draft ports/SPMs and provide
land for tankage at concessional rates and reduce the cost of operation," said A.B. Sathe, Executive Director, International Trade & Supplies, HPCL. Sathe was speaking at
India Maritime Summit 2006 organised by CII in Mumbai recently.
At present, ports are facing a lot of constraints. For example, at Mumbai Port, the permissible draft for crude tankers is only 12.2 metres and for product tankers it is 11.2 metres. Fully loaded suezmax tankers require a draft of 17 metres and displacement of 160,000 mt; at Mumbai Port, however, the permissible displacement is 125,000 mt. Besides, loaded vessels can be berthed only during high tide. Similarly, at Vizag Port, fully loaded suezmax tankers can be berthed only in daylight while VLCCs cannot be berthed at all.
"There is need for exponential growth in gross tonnage as India's GDP continues to grow at around 8 per cent leading to growth in inbound and outbound sea trade," Sathe noted. According to him, India needs to develop an efficient shipbuilding industry to build all sizes of tankers at a much faster rate to take advantage of the growing demand. This would help reduce ship acquisition cost which in turn would reduce transportation costs for the oil industry.