Green dredging!

Blogger - Rohan Mittal

Background
Dredging is the mechanical/hydraulic removal of underwater sediments from one location and disposal at some other location, which may be on land or in water. Dredging is primarily used for building and maintaining waterways. At times it is also used for creating coastal protections, beach nourishment or land reclamation in the sea.

More often than necessary, in-appropriate methods of dredging lead to disruption in local eco-systems of marine flora and fauna. This has led to the common belief that dredging is environment unfriendly. In reality, it is the faulty design of dredging or incorrect methods of disposal that are to blame and not the whole practice as such. “Green dredging” is a term coined to represent environment friendly dredging techniques.

Uses of Dredged Material
Environment friendly disposal of excavated material is one of the most important aspects of dredging, a concept that is being increasingly followed in developed nations. The idea is to treat the dredged material as a valuable resource that can be beneficially used elsewhere. Such material primarily finds use in engineering works, agricultural land and environmental projects.

Land reclamation/restoration and offshore berms are some of the common applications where dredged material can be put to use. All types of soil (clay, silt and gravel) can be efficiently used for such projects. Also, the material (especially gravel) can be used for building road embankments/foundations and noise barriers. The former is a very economical way of reducing the cost of a green-field project in an undeveloped area (roads/rail connectivity is low). The latter is an efficient way of building/expanding ports near human habitats, as noise pollution from cargo handling operations is huge deterrent in such projects.

Fine silt and clay finds excellent use for replenishment of agricultural top-soil. Being rich in minerals and sediments, it can be used for enriching the top soil in forests/farms where the same has been depleted of valuable nutrients due to prolonged usage over a period of time.

These days, environmental scientists and dredging experts are exploring the uses of dredged soils in environmental projects such as creation/nourishment of wetlands and building habitats for fisheries. Such practices are still being explored and thus do not find universal application.

Checklist for Green Dredging
Adequate planning involving pre-operation studies such as soil surveys, bathymetry studies and hydrographic studies are a prerequisite for enabling environment friendly dredging. The onus should not be restricted to the dredger operator or the port alone, but should be shared in ratio of one’s domain competencies. One effective method of implementing “Green Dredging” is to prepare an Environment Impact Assessment report for dredging alone. Most of the countries stipulate the preparation of such reports for ports/waterways but not for dredging on a piecemeal basis.

An Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report is basically an amalgamation of existing environmental conditions at the location; project background and rationale; proposed techniques of dredging; an assessment of the potential effects of the project on local flora-fauna; methods that will be used to circumnavigate the potentially baneful effects and long term benefits of the project.

The basic premise behind making an EIA report is to ensure that the dredging operations conform to environment protection through sound engineering techniques and do not pose any adverse challenge to the environment on short/long term basis.

The Future
In the near future, dredging will find numerous applications in tackling the adverse effect of climate change. Seal levels are rising at an alarming rate which will lead to destruction of existing coastal habitats and also decrease the land available for the growing population. Moreover, sea-based natural calamities have increased in frequency and intensity. Dredging will be a tool for combating all such problems through land reclamation and creation of coastal protections.

A Google Earth Image of Palm Islands and World Islands - Dubai

Above captured Palm Islands and the adjoining World Islands in Dubai, represent the largest land reclamation project in history of mankind. The services of the three largest dredging companies in the world – Jan de Nul, Van Oord and Royal Boskalis are being extensively used for building these islands and upon completion they will house more than a million people. Many such projects are envisaged to be implemented in the future.

The Verdict
With the increasing trade volumes being catered through waterways, dredging is becoming an integral part of the market mechanics. Thus propagation of environmentally sound dredging techniques will go a long way in preserving the natural eco-systems on the planet and pave way for successfully employing technology in projects aimed at supporting mankind’s existence on this planet.

“Thank you - You are Having Orissa & You are Entering W.B…”

P.W.D. (ROADS DEPTT.) GOVT. OF W.B.

Blogger - Anshuman Singh

The following travelogue is the first hand experience of the author. The blog is not meant to draw any conclusion or public opinion.

… this is what a mile stone read when I crossed Udaipur, the last village in Orissa, and enter Digha, oops!!! New Digha, (I could not draw the line separating New Digha from Digha or Old Digha whatever you choose to call it). Sometimes I feel the correct line should have been “Beware - You are Leaving Orissa & You are Entering W.B.”, though the feeling was not the same until I visited West Bengal recently on one of my official tours.

As we crossed the border our taxi was stopped and surrounded by at least 10 odd people waving sticks as if they were ready to hit me. For once I got scared and asked the driver to rush and not to stop the vehicle (we had hired our vehicle from Bhubaneshwar). Our driver was smart enough and he stopped saying - “Agar nahi roka to ye log gaadi ka sheesha tod denge” (if I don’t stop the vehicle these people will break the window panes of the vehicle.). The people around started yelling at the driver in Bengali, and I could not understand even an iota of what they said.

With my heart thumping, I got down from the vehicle and asked if anyone knew Hindi to which all of them replied – “Haan boliye!!!” (yes speak up.). Trying to be as polite as I could get, without revealing that I was scared, I enquired about the matter. I was told that a West Bengal registered vehicle without a permit (one needs to get a government permit after paying the road tax while crossing state border in a taxi) had entered Orissa and was held up there by the police for not having all the papers. In retaliation West Bengal taxi union had decided to stop all the Orissa registered taxies until a decision was taken on the issue.

I requested to allow us to go back to Orissa to which they disagreed saying that I might take another route and enter West Bengal (of course they were smarter than I was.). I was held up in New Digha for almost two hours and I decided to utilize the time for lunch in a restaurant where I was the only customer. After two hours my driver came and told me that the problem has been sorted out and all the vehicles have been released after collecting Rs. 200, equivalent to what the West Bengal taxi had to pay in Orissa.

(…to be continued)

Indian Major Port’s Traffic– A Slowdown!!

Blogger - Chetan Pandey

A quick analysis of the latest half yearly data seems to indicate that the trade slowdown is finally here in India. The traffic at all the major ports has started to stagnate following the global economic slowdown that has impacted the global trade.

As per our latest analysis based on half yearly data, traffic at all the major ports which saw an impressive year on year growth of 12% in 2007-08 has grown moderately at 7% in 2008-09. The following table exhibits these facts.

As per our analysis of the latest data available, all major ports with an exception of Kandla port trust has shown a slowdown in traffic. Infact ports like Mumbai Port Trust and Cochin has shown a negative growth rate while ports like Haldia and Ennore have stagnated at FY08 levels.

Kandla is expected to emerge as the largest cargo port in India followed by Vizag and JNPT. Infact the half yearly box traffic at JNPT has grown with a moderate growth of 9.9% in FY09. It would be prudent to remember that the same terminal handled around 4.06 million TEUs in FY08 with a growth rate of 23% over previous year.

According to latest interviews conducted with an official in a port authority, the impact on the overall traffic at all the major ports could be even great in the next half year. So that’s the information part of it, how about some action now!! We have been advising various stakeholders on various models of profitability during slowdown (shall I call it a recession?) and trust me, it’s a great learning experience. Perhaps I will share it in my next blog.

Container Transshipment – Basic Definitions

Blogger - Chetan Pandey

Transshipment is broadly defined as the act of shipping containers to an intermediary destination prior to reaching their eventual destination. Typically (though not always) transshipment of containers is the most economic option for the shipping lines to move containers from one point to another.

There are various terminologies that have been floating around in the container domain and I intend to use this forum to educate readers on the same through analogies:

Transshipment Terminology	Definition	Example - Mumbaikars
Transit	Transit may be defined as movement of containers from the hinterland through sea/ inland waterway mode (barges) to the ocean going vessel. The container per se is called as transit container. Even other wise all containers destined to the hinterland across multiple modes may be designated as transit containers. Containers that are loaded onto barges in the Hoogly river for further unloading / loading operations at Haldia may be considered as containers in transit.	For Mumbaikars a travel from home to office and vice versa can be considered as ‘containers in transit’.
Interlining	Interlining may be defined as movement of a container between two or more parallel running services operated either by one shipping line or a consortium of shipping lines serving different ports between originating and destination ports in such a manner that weekly service at each of the intermediate ports is maintained. Port of Singapore, Port Said etc are ports where interlining takes place.	The classic example is that of movement of passengers in the Mumbai suburban train services. A passenger willing to move from Mahim to Virar would perhaps first take a slow local to Andheri and then a fast local to Virar (subject to crowd). The same passenger has the option of waiting for a slow train at Mahim, however, since the waiting time is high he boards the slow train at Mahim and switches over at Andheri reaching his final destination in the most optimal time. The passenger is embarked from Mahim on a slow local, transshipped at Andheri, and continues his journey from Andheri on a fast local. Both Mahim and Andheri are serviced at a set frequency and yet a passenger opts for transshipment!! Replacing the passenger with container and suburban train/s as container liners explains the phenomenon
Relay	Relay is a typical movement of container from a main line vessel to another main line vessel on a different route. Typically relay happens on a junction of two main lines routes. Las Palmas near West Africa is some sort of a meeting point of trade routes from South America-EU and EU-Singapore (via Cape of Good Hope)	Dadar station is Mumbai is a classic example of a Relay terminal. There are two main routes viz. CST-Kalyan and Churchgate-Borivali. Dadar is typically used when a passenger from Thane wishes to move to Bandra.
Feedering	Classic feedering is defined as transportation of containers on a smaller vessel from a smaller port to a hub port for further movement on a larger vessel. Typically feeder movements are short haul in nature as they are cost effective. Movement of containers from East coast of Indian sub continent (Kolkata/ Haldia/ Chittagong) to Port of Singapore is considered as Feedering.	In the current context of Mumbai suburban system, Feedering may be defined as movement of passengers from Colaba to CST/ Churchgate or for that matter movement of passengers from Worli to Dadar in BEST buses. Typically BEST buses are acting feeders to the suburban train network.

A container typically travels through various modes encompassing our definitions of Transit, Interlining, Relay and Feedering. Similarly a passenger also uses various modes for his movement.

The underlying criterion in both these cases is to achieve combination of cargo safety, optimal cost and time or it may be euphemistically called as ‘better service’.

For Mumbaikars - May be!!

India – Emerging Asian Monster ?

Blogger - Amol Dhanvij

India and China unarguably are the most promising economies in the coming years. They share at least two characteristics: Both have population of more than billion people and most importantly, both have vast and expanding ‘skillful’ labour base. Moreover, both the nations share same ideologies and have their respective civilization going back some 5,000 years.

China and India both have shown remarkable economic growth in the past few years. However, when it comes to seaborne trade the Chinese are far ahead than India. Infact there exist a lot of differences between the two Asian giants. For e.g. the overall seaborne trade of China was almost 10 times that of India in the year 2007. The container trade of China was staggering 16 times of India in the same year.

China has about 18,000 kms of coastline with almost 1,400 ports, which means on an average a port at almost 13 kms of coastline whereas India has 7,500 kms of coastline and nearly 200 ports implying on an average a port at 37 kms.

Six of the container ports of China are among the top 20 world class container ports and the overall container traffic handled by China stood at nearly 114 million TEUs whilst for the whole India it stood at 7 million TEUs.

The main reason that can be attributed to the Chinese story is that Chinese economy opened as early as 1978 whilst in India it was in early 90’s. Also, the growth story of China is more on the shoulders of manufacturing and trade whilst for India it depends more on services.

The other reason for this difference is the fact that the processes in India are slow with more of the policymaking regulatory functions in the port sector being centralized whereas in case of China it is more decentralized. The port reforms in china were more encouraged by private partnership and foreign investments, affecting the overall trade picture.

Another reason is port induced infrastructure. Chinese were able to connect and improve their overall connectivity not only in terms of road and rail but also the inland waterways and airports making them an international destination base. India lags in this regard.

Other differences include the overall approach of the Indian and the Chinese governments. For e.g. In China SEZ’s were seen as test reforms which were ultimately adopted nationwide while in India SEZ’s are not regarded as reforms but just another means.

The port sector development in India rests on the overall development and more of the private participation which will bring in more authority and decision-making capability. Moreover, the government should act as a supporting authority in developing the ancillary infrastructure rather than the governing body.

No doubt that India can have its own share of pie and become comparable to China but for the fast paced development, the emerging Asian monster needs to look deep inside its policy making and overall decision making process.

Ship-Lift – A Revolution in shipbuilding

Blogger - Ashish Raj

From the time Noah built the ark, the shipwrights have not had much chance for innovation. The archaeological findings from Egypt show 75 feet long vessel hulls being built in pits (dry-docks for modern man) as early as 3000 BC. Even the floating dry-docks (tidal docks) were built in 2500 BC by none other than Indians.

The Harrappan civilization used shipbuilding as a strategic industry by building boats for foreigners (like flotillas for Alexander the great) and exporting teak for shipbuilding to Persia as well. Since then, there have been numerous changes in the type and style of vessels but the basic shipbuilding process has remained the same. We still dig pits, build the vessels therein and flood them out to sea.

Rolls Royce has suddenly changed the entire commercial ship-building landscape with its new ship-lift and transfer system. The shiplift is designed on the basic principle that a vessel requires floating only for a few hours after the months of building that goes into it. Using the shiplift and transfer system, the vessels are built on the numerous building berths and then floated out to the wet dock using the ship lift. The shiplift literally lowers the vessel into the sea via a lift run by hoists (ref the drawing below).

Some of the obvious benefits of shiplift include reduction in dry-docking time, multiple ship buildings with same initial capex, ultra easy capacity enhancement and even distribution of load on the building berth resulting in large savings in civil construction costs.

Though the concept has been here for some time, we have just started seeing it being developed for large and ultra large commercial vessels. If Indian shipwrights start looking at it seriously, it just might give them the extra advantage vis-à-vis the old Korean and Chinese yards and tilt the balance in their favor.

A Dedicated Shipping Index - Curtain Raiser

Blogger - Prasenjit Gangopadhyay

In the ‘India Inc Investing: a mid-year report 2008’ released by the Assocham in mid September; ports and shipping industry sectors were found to be among the most unattractive for Indian investors. It was found that FDI and PE inflows into these sectors as well as retail and FII trade volumes in the stocks were remarkably low. The reason identified were the usual policy and taxation issues, volatility etc. However, industry leaders, including INSA, were of the opinion that having a separate shipping index on the key bourses was likely to increase investor interest in stocks. This could also lead to more visibility and therefore help in attracting investments.

Whether such an index would actually lead to increased visibility and in turn attract investments needs to be determined. And historical analysis is as good a tool as any. So, an index of shipping, shipbuilding and other maritime companies was conceived, in the same model as Sensex, to see how the index would have performed against the market.

For the readers who are unfamiliar with the market index here is a brief overview. The market indexes (Ex, SENSEX, NIFTY50 etc) give an overall picture of the markets’ performance. They reflect the performance of a select group of shares chosen from across industry verticals and capitalization(s) (to accurately reflect the market), weighted by the respective number of shares available for trade in the secondary market. So if the representative index goes up, it can be inferred that in general the share values went up. For a more detailed picture please visit this webpage. I intend to follow a similar approach to determine the shipping index.

The proponents of capitalism have also upheld the efficiency of the market to incorporate developments and expectations. Though it is too soon to predict the efficiency of the proposed index to do so, over the months the index might be expected to predict the course of the maritime industry in the country.

One of the other benefits mentioned by the INSA officials in developing a shipping index was the ability to generate investments. While, the role of an index in attracting investments is not clearly defined, one can compare monthly FDI inflows in the market to that in the maritime industry for similar growths and determine if there is a significant difference in the behavior historically. This should at least let one determine correlation the maritime industry in India has with the market.

Over the next few posts, this column will be defining the shipping index, determining the benchmarks, identifying the companies that should go into the index and provide the comparative performance of the shipping index with respect to the market (Sensex). I invite you all to provide suggestions to make the index more robust.

So keep your glasses ready, we will be “breaking the bottle” next time!!