Coal news and updates

NMPT revises down HMC charges for coal

January 12: Harbour mobile crane (HMC) operators at New Mangalore Port revised down their charges from January 1, 2015, responding to Chairman P C Parida’s request, a source in a shipping company told ICMW.

Parida expects this measure to increase coal traffic at the port in the coming years.

According to the source, the HMC hire charges at the port currently stand at Rs 53.94 or $0.87 per ton as against the previous charge of Rs 67.42 or $1.09 per ton.

Earlier, Parida, Chairman, New Mangalore Port, had said at a meeting held on December 30, 2014 that major coal receivers were diverting their cargoes to nearby ports due to higher HMC charges at NMPT compared to the neighbouring ports. This, according to the chairman, affected coal traffic at New Mangalore Port.

Officials of other ports, however, could not be contacted.

Parida informed that in 2014 coal traffic at NMPT was at 2.5 million tons which is less compared to that in 2013.