[maddy42]

Originally Posted by DicKy

So far proper steps are being taken. The highway road widening project which was delayed for almost 50 years has been taken up in anticipation of the port project. Just 30 odd kms work is pending from the Tamilnadu state side and we would be connected with dual carriageway four lane roads to rest of India. Also side by side the whole National Highway stretch through Kerala is finally being widened to dual carriageway four lane ones. The Thiruvananthapuram-Kanyakumari railway single track is being converted to double tracks. The port is to be connected by a 10km undergound railway tunnel with the main tracks.

There is about 20k crore planned to be spent in the coming 4-5 years to convert it from a 1.5 million containers to 5 million container handling capacity based on the companies data.

I just hope economy and jobs is a priority to this projects success. Connectivity as you mention is key and the state can develop Thiruvanathapuram port along the lines of Kochi which has even cruise terminal come up increasing some through fare tourist traffic.

When are the next ships scheduled to dock at this port? I am keenly watching this project. I have read about how Jebel Ali has benefitted Dubai, and this city can become a hub for such traffic.

As we speak another ship KMARIN AZUR has reached this port.
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais...el:KMARIN_AZUR

Lastly lets please stick to this port and not get into discussions which will lead to killing this thread. This community has people from wide range of knowledgebase as this thread has displayed. Calm down.

[Stribog]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Interesting development! Thanks for sharing .

One thing though, it seems very tiny, as container terminals go these days?

This is just the trial run phase. Phase 1 will be completed only by Oct / Dec 2024 with the final (ph 3) to be completed by 2035 as per the original plan. Once completed it will be massive. For some perspective Nhava Sheva our busiest container port handles some 6mn teus annually Vizhinjam after phase 1 is done will have a capacity of 1 mn teu . Phase 2 capacity will be 2.5 mn teu and full will be 6 mn.

For some perspective as of today India has approx 4.5 mn teus that use one of the 4 main transhipment hubs (Colombo, Jebel, Klang and Singapore), idea is to take the majority of Colombo and Jebel volumes while the much larger Andaman port will take the eastern volumes.

Jeroen

Originally Posted by that_sedate_guy

I'm from Nagercoil, Kanyakumari and while I'm all for development, I find this project giving mixed feelings because the government is proposing to mine out massive, I mean massive amounts of rocks from the western ghats .

Would you have a source for this?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.the...02982.ece/amp/

Bulk of the granite and stones came from quarries in Kerala afaik. No way the NGT will allow the western ghats to be mined.

Originally Posted by DicKy

Believe this is phase 1, there are three more phases and the project completion is actually 2035 or somewhat. Having read your posts on shipping and ships in general, what do you reckon about the Vizhinjam port or what you have read of? Have been hearing since I was a kid about how natural the port is, how close it is to international shipping channel, how almost all of India's transhipment is handled by Dubai, Colombo and Singapore, how it would save India thousands of crores per year etc etc... So much, that I maybe in an echo chamber. So, how good will be this deep water container transshipment port or will it be a white elephant without proactive government support? .

Indian ports (Nhava Sheva, Chennai and Mundra) have a major draft issue. Nhava has 15 mtrs, Chennai 17 (but it's entrance is heavily silted and needs to be deslited often which is expensive) and Mundra 17.5 mtrs. Modern mega vessels (post panamax and MGX 24 grade) all require 17+ Mtr drafts which is why most of these large mother vessels call on Jebel, Colombo, Klang or Singapore. For every box being transshipped, there's an additional cost of around $200 / box.

For both shippers and the mainline carriers (Maersk, CMA, MSC) it makes eminent sense to skip transhipment ports outside India and simply use Vizhinjam as a T/S hub from where feeders run into the other key ports.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Unless it is going to cater for transient shipping, which I don’t think will happen, an important factor for the success of any harbour is how well it is connected to the areas it needs to serve. Industry, businesses and consumers. Which means you need lots of infrastructure. Roads, railroads and possibly water.

One of the reasons Rotterdam in the Netherlands has always been successful is because of its connections to the rest of Europe. Roads, dedicated freight railway infrastructure and lots of canals and rivers.

If you can’t get those containers out or to your port it’s all a bit futile.

I really don’t know what the infrastructure is like in this part of India, so I can’t comment on what’s it like and if any major infrastructure upgrade projects are planned for.

Jeroen

For a Transhipment port, mainland connections are irrelevant (after there are none to India from Colombo or Jebel Ali now), what matters is

* Draft
* Move times (the wait time of vessels has to be minimal)
* Storage capacity in terminal (so they simply offload, pick up cargo and move)

That being said Vizhinjam has excellent rail head and road connectivity though the bulk of the cargo will be transshipped using feeders to Chennai, Mumbai and Nhava Sheva as that provides much much greater scale.

A double stack train for instance has a capacity of 180 TEU but a small feeder has a capacity of 25,00-4,000 teu. The objective here is to route current feeders into Vizhinjam instead of international transhipment ports.

[raj84]

Originally Posted by that_sedate_guy

I'm from Nagercoil, Kanyakumari and while I'm all for development, I find this project giving mixed feelings because the government is proposing to mine out massive, I mean massive amounts of rocks from the western ghats that envelope Kanyakumari district. The projections are on a very large scale and huge amounts have already been excavated. My concern is, when other countries are also able have ports with wave breakers made of concrete, why are the investors and the government here adamant about development only via erasing significant geographical features? Also, indiscriminate mining in that area will completely topple the monsoon cycle. Kerala which enjoys a lot more rainfall now will see a decline when the mountain slopes are not what they used to be. Hope the actual mining is not as much as media projects, or that the project owners get some sense inside their heads and go for precast structures instead of trying to move mountains into the sea.

Correct me if I am wrong, but there are few facts why there is a feeling that a section of people in Kanyakumari were purposely mislead, causing them to turn against this port project in Trivandrum

1. There were one attempt after the other to torpedo the project at different stages of the project, in the form of strikes, people filing cases in NGT, filing cases against quarries used by the project.

2. When some of the attempts to stop the project failed, when Supreme Court and NGT approved the project, the same section of people opposing the project filed a new case to enforce that the distance of a quarry from the nearest settlement be increased for all quarries in Kerala. Kerala being densely populated was affected by this as there were less number of quarries with this distance limit. This case was primarily meant to block the quarries operating near Trivandrum supplying rocks for the port project

3. This forced government and Adani to look elsewhere for rocks. Tamilnadu was supplying rocks from Nagercoil and Tuticorin, which are closer to Trivandrum.There the quarry owners and Truck owners were the same and they worked like a cartel, strong enough to oppose any strikes against quarries. The contractor engaged to source rocks for the port project started sourcing rocks from them, in addition to whatever they could source from the now limited quarries in Kerala near Trivandrum. Distance is important as they cannot bring rocks from places that are far away even if within Kerala

4. Since now rock supply got streamlined again, suddenly there was protest in Nagercoil. Initially it was for rocks sourced from there. When sourcing switched to Tuticorin, the next protest in Nagercoil was that the trucks carrrying rocks from Tuticorin to Trivandrum via Nagercoil is destroying the roads or causing accidents

5. While all these protests were happening with people demanding that Kerala should use its own rocks, and Tamilnadu rocks should be for Tamilnadu, for years there were daily shipping of rocks from Tuticorin port to build ports in Maldives, funded by China. This was continuing even when these protests against supplying rocks to the Vizhinjam port was rampant and there were no protests against it.

6. Even when sourcing of rocks for Vizhinjam port switched to another border area in Tamilnadu (Tenkasi), due to these protests from Nagercoil/Kanyakumari,there were people from Kerala who illegally sourced rocks in the name of Vizhinjam port from Nagercoil based suppliers. This continues even today, but entire blame is on the port project even if they are not the only ones sourcing rocks from Kerala.

7. Koodankulam protest as well as the recent strike against the Vizhinjam port by the Church had resemblance and was funded by external agencies. The attempts to block the project and future development is active even today. The easiest way to do that is to divide people, and that succeeded to an extent that a section of Kanyakumari now started disliking their neighbours.

[Cephalix]

The repeated use of the term "India’s first deepwater transshipment port" when referring to Vizhinjam is puzzling when Mundra (another Adani port) has been offering transshipment services and a 17.5 m draft (18.0 m with the tide) for at least two decades now. Mundra port offers such a compelling value proposition that MSC & CMA-CGM, the largest and third largest container shipping lines in the world, have already invested in building their own container terminals there, jointly with Adani.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by Cephalix

The repeated use of the term "India’s first deepwater transshipment port" when referring to Vizhinjam is puzzling when Mundra (another Adani port) has been offering transshipment services and a 17.5 m draft (18.0 m with the tide) for at least two decades now. Mundra port offers such a compelling value proposition that MSC & CMA-CGM, the largest and third largest container shipping lines in the world, have already invested in building their own container terminals there, jointly with Adani.

All ports might offer transshipment services - which is basically to hold the cargo for a short period of time before loading on to a smaller ship. But turnaround time for such ports will be significant higher than exclusive transhipment ports like Vizhinjam.

For a transhipment port to be successful, LOCATION is the key. A large container ship from China containing smartphones, laptops, drones etc could drop off 50% of its load at Vizhingjam and then unload another 50% in Europe, passing the Suez Canal. Mundra is further 1,500 or 2,000 km from away from Vizhinjam and for shipping companies, it makes no sense to use Mundra for transhipment.



Vizhinjam's turnaround time is expected to be 24 hours while that of Colombo Port is currently 38 hours. So it makes sense for ship owners to use Vizhinjam rather than Colombo.

[harikrishnansp]

Originally Posted by krrisdrive

However I must mention, a Kerala coastal photo with a container port shocked me since we are used to beautiful beaches and sea from God's own country.

That name alone doesn't pay the bills. The advantage of a port in Vizhinjam is too good to ignore for the state, even for the country.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Unless it is going to cater for transient shipping, which I don’t think will happen, an important factor for the success of any harbour is how well it is connected to the areas it needs to serve. Industry, businesses and consumers. Which means you need lots of infrastructure. Roads, railroads and possibly water.

One of the reasons Rotterdam in the Netherlands has always been successful is because of its connections to the rest of Europe. Roads, dedicated freight railway infrastructure and lots of canals and rivers.

If you can’t get those containers out or to your port it’s all a bit futile.

I really don’t know what the infrastructure is like in this part of India, so I can’t comment on what’s it like and if any major infrastructure upgrade projects are planned for.

Jeroen

Infrastructure is very bad in Kerala, the main national highway running through Kerala(NH66), is a narrow two lane highway. But, the same is being widened as we speak and we can expect it to be a good 4 lane highway by 2026.

Although the port is very close to TN and the roads are good there. Still, getting to the good highways in TN from Kerala is a pain because the connecting road is also a narrow 2 lane highway. When this problem could be addressed is a mystery at this point.

Then, there is the Trivandrum ring road being planned that connect Vizhinjam to NH66, bypassing the city, that project is also in limbo due to some disputes between the state and centre. If that is also addressed, then we have some temporary relief.

They are also planning rail connectivity to Vizhinjam, then again, Kerala has heavy rail traffic with one of the most outdated track layouts. Trains move at a snails pace. Currently they are in the process of upgrading some of the sections to handle better speeds.

[Cephalix]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Unless it is going to cater for transient shipping, which I don’t think will happen, an important factor for the success of any harbour is how well it is connected to the areas it needs to serve. Industry, businesses and consumers. Which means you need lots of infrastructure. Roads, railroads and possibly water.

65% of the total export and import of containerised cargo comes from the Northern and Western parts of India. This business is well catered to by two large ports (Mundra and Nhava Sheva) and two smaller ones (Pipavav & Hazira). Between them, they offer a plethora of direct sailing options to any part of the world. Thus, this 65% of India's total business has no reason to move anywhere else.Vizhinjam is envisioned first and foremost as a transshipment terminal. Kerala, where the port is situated, does not have a large manufacturing*base of cargo for export. Nor does it have a significant volume of containerised import cargo. It also already has a well established container terminal at Cochin/Kochi, which again is a transshipment terminal as well.The success or failure of Vizhinjam will depend upon the ability of Adani to woo major shipping lines to shift their transshipment business away from Colombo. Given their track record of similar success at Mundra, this looks like a fair bet

Originally Posted by SmartCat

All ports might offer transshipment services - which is basically to hold the cargo for a short period of time before loading on to a smaller ship. But turnaround time for such ports will be significant higher than exclusive transhipment ports like Vizhinjam.

You miss my point, I am afraid. How is Vizhinjam India's first deepwater transshipment port, when Mundra port, another Adani venture, has been offering similar draft and transshipment facilities for years?

[krrisdrive]

To the people in the know, I have two queries.
> What are the real ground level benefits of Vizhinjam to an importer? Say for someone / a company from Pune or Sri City, will there be any reduction in shipment cost or delivery duration?
> What are the incentives for International Container ship companies to use Vizhinjam instead of Columbo?

Thanks

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by krrisdrive

To the people in the know, I have two queries.
> What are the real ground level benefits of Vizhinjam to an importer? Say for someone / a company from Pune or Sri City, will there be any reduction in shipment cost or delivery duration?

Which port to use will be decided by the shipping company hired by the exporter in China/Japan/Korea/ASEAN, not the importer. In your example, Maersk or Evergreen might drop off the cargo at Vizhinjam first and proceed to Middle East/Africa/Europe. Then a smaller ship might transport the cargo from Vizhinjam to Mumbai.

What are the incentives for International Container ship companies to use Vizhinjam instead of Columbo?

Depends on:

- Port charges charged by Colombo vs Vizhinjam port
- Turnaround time (how long it takes to unload mothership & load smaller ship)

Originally Posted by swiftgeorge

I do agree with your point on the port not being designed for VLCC's.

Crude, Natural Gas & bulk cargo (eg: iron ore/coal etc) will never need transhipment services. That's because the entire cargo from Saudi/Qatar is unloaded in India. There is no need to unload 50% in India and further 50% elsewhere.

But that's not the case with containerized cargo like gadgets/computers etc. India will not need 18,000 containers full of smartphones at any point of time, because demand in India depends on inventory levels. So it makes sense for the exporter to use transhipment for containerized cargo.

[swiftgeorge]

Originally Posted by ashkamath

The focus of this port is containers. This port may not be designed to accomodate VLCCs carrying crude. I don't think that matters much as India doesn't have many (or any significant ) Crude oil refinery in South India. For smaller/ lesser draft vessels, there are a good number of ports in India on both her East and West coasts. So, this is primarily for large container vessels with draft excess of 15 Mtrs.

I do agree with your point on the port not being designed for VLCC's. Just to clarify there are 2 crude refineries each of 15 MMTPA on the west coast of South India. The first being in Kochi (which is serviced by Kochi Port) and the second one in Mangalore (serviced by Mangalore Port).

[Cephalix]

Originally Posted by krrisdrive

To the people in the know, I have two queries.
> What are the real ground level benefits of Vizhinjam to an importer? Say for someone / a company from Pune or Sri City, will there be any reduction in shipment cost or delivery duration?
> What are the incentives for International Container ship companies to use Vizhinjam instead of Columbo?

Thanks

If you are an importer or exporter based in South Kerala or in the adjoining areas*of TN like Karur or Tiruppur, Vizhinjam (assuming the port is able to attract a sufficient number of shipping lines to move their transshipment hub from Colombo) would offer you several direct sailing opportunities to the US, Europe and other Asian countries. You would thus be able to serve your markets faster. Theoretically, you may also enjoy lower freight rates since the shipping line*saves the cost of feedering your cargo to another*transshipment port, plus the actual operational cost of the transshipment operation there. However, in reality this may not be so, since carriers base their prices on a number of other factors as well.

If on the other hand, you are based in Pune or Sri City, Vizhinjam may not offer a serious value proposition. Pune already has a well established logistics corridor to the container terminals at Nhava Sheva, which is well connected to all major trade lines with direct sailings. Sri City is over 800 km from Vizhinjam, while Chennai port is just 75 km away. The incremental transportation cost may more than nullify any other advantage offered by Vizhinjam.

Container shipping lines would look at several factors when choosing a transhipment terminal, like:

1.What are the origin countries of your transshipment cargo at the current transshipment terminal? If you switch to another terminal, can this cargo be easily relayed to that port as well?

2.What is the volume of local cargo (i.e., the cargo originating from or destined for the country where you are transshipping) you are loading/discharging at your current transshipment terminal? Will you lose this cargo if you shift to another terminal, or can you successfully retain and feeder it to the new port? What will be your additional cost for such feedering and transshipment?

3.Do you incur any additional cost, in terms of diversion of your vessel from the maintrade lanes in order to call at the new terminal? Main components of this would be the extra fuel burnt if any, plus the additional standing costs per day of the vessel. If so, what would that cost be?

4.What is your current port turnaround time and what will it be if you switch to the new terminal? Port call costs are based on time spent at berth, plus pilotage, so the shorter your port stay, the lower your cost. Also, a shorter port stay (assuming there is not time lost n the diversion to the new port) will give you a cushion for your voyage to your next port

5.What is the financial impact of the switch? One major component in this calculation will be the total port call costs offered by the new terminal vs. your current one. In addition, the answers to the first four points above will also be taken into account

[NomadSK]

Originally Posted by SmartCat

Which port to use will be decided by the shipping company hired by the exporter in China/Japan/Korea/ASEAN, not the importer. In your example, Maersk or Evergreen might drop off the cargo at Vizhinjam first and proceed to Middle East/Africa/Europe. Then a smaller ship might transport the cargo from Vizhinjam to Mumbai.

Another thing which might be helpful in making the decision could be, that these private shipping companies (Maersk, Hanjin, MSC et al) have their huge container terminals outside the ports, but closer to the port terminal. Where they shift and store their containers temporarily for forward movements.

[DicKy]

Originally Posted by raj84

1. There were one attempt after the other to torpedo the project at different stages of the project, in the form of strikes, people filing cases in NGT, filing cases against quarries used by the project.

Nothing compared to the attempts made in the 2000s and early 2010s when tenders were being invited. Once the tender was awarded to the current concessionaire (even with terms disfavourable to the government/public), it was assured that the project would take off, crony capitalism or whatever. This project and the efforts made to sabotage it by different players played a good role in shaping my political views for the better or worse.

Originally Posted by raj84

7. Koodankulam protest as well as the recent strike against the Vizhinjam port by the Church had resemblance and was funded by external agencies. The attempts to block the project and future development is active even today. The easiest way to do that is to divide people, and that succeeded to an extent that a section of Kanyakumari now started disliking their neighbours.

Can't say anything about this without being political, but the current chokehold on FCRA licenses is good for national interests IMO.

Originally Posted by Cephalix

You miss my point, I am afraid. How is Vizhinjam India's first deepwater transshipment port, when Mundra port, another Adani venture, has been offering similar draft and transshipment facilities for years?

Not sure about technicalities, but when even Adani themselves say so..

https://www.adaniports.com/newsroom/...ntainer%20ship

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by DicKy

Not sure about technicalities, but when even Adani themselves say so

The only technicality is Vizhinjam is an EXCLUSIVE transhipment port while Mundra is not. Mundra is a normal commercial port.

That is, most of the cargo unloaded at Vizhinjam is loaded back into smaller ships. Meanwhile, most of the cargo unloaded at Mundra is moved inland via trucks and trains.

[ashkamath]

Originally Posted by swiftgeorge

I do agree with your point on the port not being designed for VLCC's. Just to clarify there are 2 crude refineries each of 15 MMTPA on the west coast of South India. The first being in Kochi (which is serviced by Kochi Port) and the second one in Mangalore (serviced by Mangalore Port).

Yes. That's right. CRL in Cochin & MRPL in Mangalore. Decades ago, I have attended onboard many MRPL tankers at NMPT (Now NMPA) New Mangalore Port Authority. They have massive operation & presence in this coastal sector.