SAIL rationalising logistics

The public sector Steel Authority of India Ltd is switching to larger, cape-size vessels for its coking coal imports instead of the panamax vessels it is using currently. The idea is to reduce freight costs on its annual coking coal imports of about 6 million tonnes. Cape-size vessels typically carry between 1 and 1.8 lakh tonnes of coal. In comparison, panamax vessels can carry a maximum of 75,000 tonnes, and handymax vessels up to 40,000 tonnes. SAIL has already tried out one consignment of coal imports on a cape-size ship. This consignment of 1.8 lakh tonnes was discharged at Vishakapatnam port in end April. Since cape-size ships require a 12-metre draft at ports, which the Vizag port does not have, SAIL will berth the ships in the outer port and discharge the cargo into smaller vessels or barges. The company has been using the Vizag port for its Bhilai plant in Madhya Pradesh. For its Bokaro plant in Bihar, the Durgapur plant in West Bengal, and the Rourkela plant in Orissa, the company uses the Haldia port near Calcutta. The coking coal is imported from Australia and New Zealand.