Seaways begins coastal shipping from Vizag

Seaways Group, a leading shipping and logistics service provider in the country, today commenced coastal shipping from Visakhapatnam port.

Seaways took up the transportation of steel cargo of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) on a door-to-door basis, thus providing an alternative to road and rail transportation. The first trial shipment of 1000 tonnes of steel products were shipped aboard MV Coastal Express-1 here.

This is for the first time steel products were transported by sea by any operator. This multi-mode operation included picking up of steel cargo from the VSP factory and loading onto the container. The other two stages involve transportation by sea and final delivery of the cargo at the VSP's stockyard at Kolkata.

Speaking on the occasion, Y Siva Sagar Rao, chairman and managing director, VSP, said that the steel plant was planning to transport 35 per cent of its products through coastal shipping by 2020.

Coastal shipping is a safer, faster and economical alternative for moving large quantities at a time with relatively lower transit period. Besides eliminating multiple handling, damages and pilferage of cargo, coastal shipping was more reliable and cost-effective, said Rao.

"Initially, we are sending cargo to Kolkata by sea. At a later stage, steel cargo will be sent to other cities by coastal shipping," he added.

Seaways group operates coastal express service on the east coast between India and Bangladesh calling at Vizag, Kolkata, Chittagong, Paradip and Chennai, providing a niche service to its customers on a 10-day tentative schedule, according to K.Vijay Gopal, chief executive officer, Seaways Group.

He said that the company had also plans to launch services to carry dry and refrigerated cargos in containers on the east coast. Port chairman K R Kishore also attended the function.