India

Manual Loading of Iron Ore Ships at Haldia Dock Complex (HDC)

Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) has issued Circular No.MTO/G/104/Pt.IV/488 dated 20th April 2004 as follows:

"Of late it has been noticed that the vessels, which are being brought to Haldia for loading iron ore manually, are found to be very old and having very poor quality of lifting appliances. As a result the productivity of these vessels is far below the average productivity achieved on good ships.

It is needless to mention here that being one of the busiest ports in the country, HDC authorities are giving utmost effort to increase the productivity of vessels. Therefore the presence of low productivity vessels inside the dock not only increases the TRT of the vessels due to their poor performance but also affects the berthing of other vessels which are waiting for a working berth.

Therefore, it has been decided that henceforth those vessels having cranes of at least 20 MT S.W.L capacity for working will be accepted at Haldia Dock for loading iron ore manually with a view to achieving average productivity of 12000 MT per day.

As such, it may also be noted here that vessels having poor quality of lifting appliances like swing derricks may not be accepted by the port authority in future".