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India
has a long
coastline of about 7517 km, spread on the western and
eastern shelves of the mainland and also along the
Islands
. It is an important natural resource for the
country’s trade. Approximately 95% of the country’s
trade by volume and 70% by value is moved through
Maritime Transport. The Maritime Transport Sector in
India
comprises of Ports, Shipping, Shipbuilding and Ship
repair and Inland Water Transport Systems.
India
has 12 Major ports and 200 non-major ports, as per the
latest information received from maritime studies.
India
is among the 20 leading merchant fleets all over the
world. The Gross Tonnage (GT) under Indian flag was 9.04
million GT and 15.02 million DWT as on 31.12.2007.
The
average output per ship per day for all major ports
taken together has improved from 9267 tonnes in 2005- 06
to 9745 tonnes in 2006-07. However, average turnaround
time has marginally increased from 3.50 days to 3.62
days over the same period primarily on account of
increase in the number of ships handled at the ports.
The
ship freight on International Waterways is continuously
declining during the last few months. This is especially
for the Drybulk sector where the drop in freight/charter
rates which commenced from August, 2008 took a steep
fall in September, October, November and December, 2008.
As
far as liner sector is concerned, the decrease is
ranging between 70.96% to 78.57% on India-Europe Sector,
50% to 87.5% on India-Far East Sector and 50% to 78.57%
on the India-Middle East Sector. 50-70% from Indian
sub-continent to Far East sector, Middle East sector and
Europe
sector. Similarly, the freight is also declining on the
return legs.
The
dry bulk sector has also been most affected during the
period in question. The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) serves as
an indicator of the dry bulk market and its steep fall
reflects the freight situation in the dry bulk market.
The overall fall in BDI from July, 2008 to January, 2009
works out to a fall of 89.87% in December, 2008. This
index fell from 8934 in July, 2008 to 743 in December,
2008. The index improved in January, 2009 to 905, but
the levels are far below breakeven levels for bulk
carrier owners.
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