The Cochin Port Trust (CPT), pursuing an aggressive marketing strategy, is targeting a variety of new cargo, including coffee, cotton, and petrochemicals, to augment volumes. The increasing preference for the coastal route is to the Kochi Port’s advantage even as there is a modal shift from road to coastal shipping, said CPT Chairperson M. Beena.
According to her, there was a proposal to move propylene in bullet tankers using roll-on roll-off service from Kochi to Dahej in Gujarat. Once the proposal materialises, there is a possibility of movement of more than a lakh tonne of the cargo a year. The CPT marketing team is actively pursuing movement of coffee, maize, and plywood in containers from Kushalnagar and Mysore regions in Karnataka to Kochi, taking advantage of the coastal service between Azhikal port and Kochi.
The efforts of the port marketing team had met with commendable success last year when a consignment of 7,474 tonnes of rice arrived at the International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT) on Vallarpadam island in containers in early November last year. Till the end of March this year, 46,852 tonnes of rice meant for the Food Corporation of India (FCI) was handled at ICTT.
