JNPT faces tough competition from pvt terminal operators

The state-run container terminal of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), which handles over 58 per cent of the country's container traffic, is feeling the heat of competition from private terminal operators such as Dubai Ports World and the AP Moller.

The increasing traffic is being diverted to the newly commissioned third container terminal, Gateway Terminals of India, operated by the AP Moller and Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) consortium.

The AP Moller-operated terminal, started in May, managed to get 10 per cent of the traffic at JNPT by October. The state-owned container terminal has 45.8 per cent and Dubai Ports has 44.2 per cent of JNPT's total market share.

The second container terminal at JNPT, Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal (NSICT), operated by Dubai Ports, has been able to arrest traffic diversion.

According to industry sources, JNPCT must have lost at least 80,000 to 100,000 twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) of container from January till date to its competitors.

Dubai Ports and AP Moller, which have presence in other container terminals in the East and West coast, are giving tight competition by offering "package deals" to shipping lines.

Sources said international port majors, in the light of assured traffic, are subtly compelling shipping lines to call their container terminals of major ports and minor ports for granting a berth.

"We always opt calling at terminals of Dubai Ports and AP Moller for their superior service and faster vessel turnaround. But we cannot change our vessel schedules according to the terminals' package deal. This will affect our profits and operations," an international shipping line executive said.

Besides the container terminal at JNPT, Dubai Ports is operating terminals at Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT), Chennai Port Trust (ChPT) and Mundra International Container Terminal (MICT), a non-major in Gujarat. AP Moller is operating a container terminal at Pipavav port in Gujarat.

"In certain cases, private operators are gently insisting the shipping companies to call at their respective terminals outside India too. Dubai Ports has presence in Jebel Ali, Dubai, Karachi while AP Moller has presence in Salalah," they said. Industry sources said JNPT does not have a chairman since May.

"This loss was mainly due to bureaucratic delay at JNPT and apathy for replacement of gantry cranes at its container terminal for last three years," a shipping line representative said.

"The tender, floated for acquiring gantry cranes, has been cancelled and there was no progress on that front. There has been delay in its plan to extend its container berth by 330 metre ," a port user said.