The Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port Trust (SMP), Kolkata, today announced that for the first time in its history, a large cape vessel MV Mineral Yangfan arrived at Sagar anchorage with the highest ever parcel load.
The port authorities said the large cape vessel, on account of Steel Authority of India (SAIL), arrived at Sagar anchorage on 1 September to discharge 70,300 MT of coking coal by floating cranes. This is the largest dry bulk cargo to arrive at anchorage with the highest ever parcel load.
The cape vessel MV Mineral Yangfan has an overall length of 299.92m, a beam of 50 meters and a draft of 9.3m. It is registered in Portugal. The port has said this is the 18th cape vessel the port handled in the current fiscal while only four cape vessels were handled till August in the last fiscal year out of a total of 14 cape vessels handled in 2021-22.
The loading port of MV Mineral Yangfan was New Port, USA and the last port of call is Dhamra. It is learnt that the railway division of Haldia is working in tandem with marine division for quick evacuation of cargo from the port and this is making Haldia Dock Complex (HDC), the most preferred port of call, which is 80 miles away from SMP Kolkata.
The port authorities said that after long persuasion, SAIL has agreed to bring two cape vessels per month and has a plan to mobilize cargo throughput of 1.5 MMT per annum at anchorages. The SMP Kolkata chairman Vinit Kumar said, “Calling of such a cape vessel at Sagar anchorage at a 9.3-metre draft is a laudable landmark in the port’s history.” He stated that the arrival of MV Mineral Yangfan is also significant for carrying 70,300 MT of cargo which otherwise would have been carried in two to three separate vessels.”
The chairman assured that with the active cooperation of port users, especially SAIL and the wholehearted efforts of all SMP employees, Kolkata will be able to attain many other remarkable records.