Two investors at Ennore Port are at loggerheads to handle coal, a commodity that is witnessing a whopping 42% growth. Sical Iron Ore Terminals Ltd, which wants to handle coal at its iron ore terminal at Ennore port, is facing opposition from Chettinad International Coal Terminal, the developer of coal terminal at the same port.

According to Government estimates, each of these investors has put in about INR 400 crore to develop their terminals. Both iron ore and coal terminals, developed on a public private partnership basis, were commissioned at Ennore port about a year ago on January 28th 2011.

Thereafter, coal traffic at the port has soared while iron ore traffic has vanished, owing to external market conditions.

Operations at iron ore terminal have been hit because of the ban on export of iron ore in Karnataka.

For the April to December 2011 period, Ennore Port did not handle any iron ore traffic. Following this, the iron ore terminal investor - Sical Iron Ore Terminal has sought respite from the Government.

Meanwhile, Ennore Port has seen robust growth in coal traffic.

The port handled about nine million tonnes of coal during April to December 2011, which shows a 42% YoY.

The growth has been supported by a decision of the Madras High Court to shift dusty cargo including coal and iron ore from Chennai to Ennore.

The right to develop and operate the iron ore terminal for a 30 year period was won by Sical Iron Ore Terminals, a consortium of Sical Logistics, MMTC and Larsen and Toubro Infrastructure Development Projects. The consortium has won the rights to develop 12 million tonne a year capacity in two phases at the port. Currently, it has commissioned six million tonne a year capacity.

(Sourced from BL)