PRIVATISED CARGO HANDLING AT KPT

As readers of PS will have noticed, South Asian port development projects – India in particular – almost warrant their own news department in the magazine. Nevertheless, berth congestion appears to be on the increase at major ports throughout India. For the nine months ending December 2005, the average vessel turnaround time was 3.53 days compared with 3.41 days (2004-05) and 3.45 days (2003-04). In addition, pre-berthing times at major ports have gone up from 4.86 hours (2003-04) to 6.03 hours (2004-05) and thence to 9.16 hours in April-December 2005. During the last calendar year, cargo handled by major ports grew by 12.4%, perhaps explaining the increasing congestion.

The Board of Trustees of Karachi Port Trust has approved a plan to privatise cargo handling services by introducing private-sector owned cargo handling companies. This will not affect stevedores who will continue to be employed by the Port Trust. No limit is to be placed on the number of cargo handling companies who will be free to deal in whatever cargo they wish. They would be obliged to pay royalties on all imported cargo although export cargo would be exempt from. In addition, no rent would be paid for storage on breakbulk or containers held in the CFS. All port charges would have to be agreed in future by these private-sector companies in collaboration with the Karachi Port Trust. Calculations undertaken locally suggest that some 100,000 containers and 1.768m tonnes of dry bulk cargo would be handled by the new companies.