Wednesday, 31 Mar 2010
Reuters reported that the speed with which large, private, fully mechanized ports are springing up in India is making coal producers and traders think again. Suppliers had until recently doubted India could import the coal it will need because most of its ports were small and shallow and government port expansions were running late.
The international perception of India's coal ports has been of a collection of mostly small, old, terminals which cannot take standard coal 150,000 tonne capsize vessels but are mostly limited to 50,000 to 75,000 tonne panamaxes or handysize.
These small ports can take up to a week to discharge, are plagued by delays and have poor road and rail links to end users. But the slew of private ports under construction or expansion and their sheer size has taken the international coal market by surprise.
Mr John Kearsey head of research at ship brokers Simon Spence & Young said that "We're going to have to revise our projections for Indian coal imports and look at the impact of the ports being built."
India will need more imported coal to make up for its domestic shortfall for the next 20 years. In 2010-2011 India will import 81 million tonnes.
Mr Will Fray shipping analyst with London based consultants Maritime Strategies International said that "Indian and Chinese coal demand is a significant driver behind our forecast for dry bulk demand growth over the next few years. Together we expect them to account for over 50% of global incremental seaborne coal imports over this period."
India is also building a host of state and private coal fired power plants plus private merchant power plants which sell power to local industry on a spot basis and could need as much as 200 million tonnes of imported coal within the next several years to feed these.
The Indian government's aim is to expand major state ports to handle 1.5 billion tonnes of total cargo by 2012 but plans are behind target, a gap being filled by the private sector.
(Sourced from www.reuters.com)
Review: http://www.steelguru.com/news/index/MTM5MTgy/India_surprises_with_big_new_coal_ports.html
Reuters reported that the speed with which large, private, fully mechanized ports are springing up in India is making coal producers and traders think again. Suppliers had until recently doubted India could import the coal it will need because most of its ports were small and shallow and government port expansions were running late.
The international perception of India's coal ports has been of a collection of mostly small, old, terminals which cannot take standard coal 150,000 tonne capsize vessels but are mostly limited to 50,000 to 75,000 tonne panamaxes or handysize.
These small ports can take up to a week to discharge, are plagued by delays and have poor road and rail links to end users. But the slew of private ports under construction or expansion and their sheer size has taken the international coal market by surprise.
Mr John Kearsey head of research at ship brokers Simon Spence & Young said that "We're going to have to revise our projections for Indian coal imports and look at the impact of the ports being built."
India will need more imported coal to make up for its domestic shortfall for the next 20 years. In 2010-2011 India will import 81 million tonnes.
Mr Will Fray shipping analyst with London based consultants Maritime Strategies International said that "Indian and Chinese coal demand is a significant driver behind our forecast for dry bulk demand growth over the next few years. Together we expect them to account for over 50% of global incremental seaborne coal imports over this period."
India is also building a host of state and private coal fired power plants plus private merchant power plants which sell power to local industry on a spot basis and could need as much as 200 million tonnes of imported coal within the next several years to feed these.
The Indian government's aim is to expand major state ports to handle 1.5 billion tonnes of total cargo by 2012 but plans are behind target, a gap being filled by the private sector.
(Sourced from www.reuters.com)
Review: http://www.steelguru.com/news/index/MTM5MTgy/India_surprises_with_big_new_coal_ports.html
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