Bad weather hits operations at Vizag port

Due to bad weather conditions over the last 20-25 days, about 40 vessels destined for loading or unloading of cargo at the Vizag port remained waiting mid-sea.

“During the last one month, we have lost six working days without any cargo handling activities because of bad weather conditions. This is the main reason for a number of ships waiting at roads,” KSD Dattu Raju, traffic manager, Vizag port, told Business Standard.

Owing to heavy and frequent rains, the cargo handling rate has fallen significantly the port over the last one month. In the first week of November, Vizag port handled 1.1 million tonnes of cargo as against the average handling rate of about 1.4-1.5 million tonnes in a week. Up to the end of October, the port handled 38.27 million tonnes of cargo as against 38.54 million tonnes during the corresponding period of last fiscal. “If the bad weather conditions had not prevailed, we should have crossed last year’s cargo handling figures,” Raju said.

 

Of the 40 vessels waiting at roads, 13 ships are meant to load iron ore at Vizag port. However, during the rains, moving iron ore over the conveyer belt is very difficult, which means iron ore exports are more or less stagnant at Vizag port during the last 7-10 days. Due to this, more iron ore vessels are waiting on roads, Raju said.

Apart from this, eight vessels with petroleum products, seven with with coking coal, five with fertilizers are waiting for berths in the last few days.