The Adani Group-owned Mundra Port has hit a new productivity milestone, ramping up competition with with its public rival Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) as it prepares to open a fourth mega-terminal.
Adani International Container Terminal (AICTPL), a joint venture between Adani Group and Mediterranean Shipping Co., loaded and discharged a total of 10,254 TEU — touted as the largest-ever lift on a single sailing at an Indian port — when it serviced the MSC Bruxelles last week.
The 337-meter (1,106-foot) Bruxelles has been deployed in MSC’s newly launched and independent 'INGWE' service connecting Asia, the Gulf, and Africa. The weekly service calls Ningbo, Shanghai and Shekou, China; Singapore; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Port Louis, Mauritius; Durban and Coega, South Africa; Salalah, Oman; Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates; Karachi, Pakistan; Mundra, Nhava Sheva (JNPT) and Hazira, India; Colombo; and back to Ningbo.
The new milestone broke the previous high of 8,703 TEU achieved on the MSC Fillippa that called AICTPL in September last year, according to a company statement.
MSC has been steadily upsizing its tonnage in Indian trades with larger vessels, and the 9,200-TEU Bruxelles call builds on that trend.
MSC and Adani in January 2016 reached an agreement to extend AICTPL’s quay by 2,132 feet to 4,790 feet and add 15 super post-Panamax quay cranes, doubling annual capacity from 1.5 million TEU to 3.1 million TEU.
The 50:50 venture, which was set up in 2013, has been a key factor in Mundra’s strong growth in recent years, as the Geneva-based liner has been using AICTPL for its transshipment traffic in the Indian Subcontinent region.
The terminal expansion is part of Adani Port’s strategic plan to position Mundra as the top container harbor in India with a capacity of 6.6 million TEU annually. It has also been winning more hinterland customers and accessing new markets with rail upgrades, an effort that led Mundra’s April to June volume to increase 20 percent year over year to 1 million TEU.
The private harbor, about 300 nautical miles from JNPT, encompasses port-owned Adani Mundra Container Terminal; DP World-managed Mundra International Container Terminal; and Adani CMA Mundra Terminal, a joint venture CMA CGM Group.
While Mundra has expanded and increased productivity, its chief rival JNPT has done so as well, and the opening PSA International’s Bharat Mumbai Container Terminals (BMCT) will bring capacity there to around 7.5 million TEU. Underscoring those productivity gains, the use of radio-frequency identification container tracking has given JNPT an edge over Mundra’s overall dwell times, with an average of 48 hours at JNPT compared with 53 hours at Mundra.
Source:- Joc.com
