Cochin Port organizes Bunker Business meet, asserts its increasing role

Mr. Gautam Chatterjee, Director General of Shipping, lighting the traditional lamp to mark the inaugurating of the bunker business meet in Cochin on May 15.

The National Level Bunker Business Meet, a platform of all major stakeholders in the bunker trade in India was organized on May 15 in Cochin, hosted by the Cochin Port.

The business meet, well attended by the who’s who of Indian Bunker Industry provided a forum for information interchange and interaction with the leading players of the bunker trade in India.

Cochin has been in the forefront in promoting all spheres of the maritime trade. Leveraging on its geo-strategic location, Cochin Port has made earnest efforts in putting in place simplified procedures, liberalized tax regime, concessional tariff and a conducive business environment to promote bunker trade from Cochin In a big way.

Coupled with the availability of all quality grades bunkers and in sufficient quantity due to the presence of all the leading oil majors, tank farms and adequate berthing facilities, Cochin Port has also been actively supported by the Customs, Central Excise, MMD, and the State Government in this endeavour.

The conference was inaugurated by Mr. Gautam Chatterjee, Director General of Shipping.

Doyens of the industries, which included Mr. Chandan Samaiyar of Glander International, Mr. D.K.Basu of Indian Oil, Mr. Ashish Khanna of HPCL, Mr. Richard D’Souza of Matrix Bharat, Mr. Manoj Tandon of Chemoil Adani and Mr. Sajith Kumar of JM Baxi, spoke on different aspects like marketing, infrastructure and competitiveness of pricing and quality, to enrich the bunker trade with the latest developments in the business and the way forward.

In his address, Mr.Gautam Chatterjee, Director General of Shipping, appreciated the concerted efforts taken by Cochin Port, State Government and Customs to provide streamlined trade friendly procedures and invoked the bunker suppliers and, bunker traders, to avail of the facilities at Cochin Port to boost the bunker trade.

The event was attended by all the leading ship owners, vessel agents, bunker suppliers, bunker traders, barge operators and all other allied service providers from the Indian Bunker Industry. Dr.K.N.Raghavan, IRS, Commissioner-Customs, Mr Sharat C Meshram, Executive Director, IOC, Mr.S.Jeyakrishnan, Executive Director, HPCL also spoke on the occasion.

Six conference papers covering varied topics ranging from international bunkering trends, bunkering scenario in India, initiatives taken by Oil Majors and the potentials of Cochin Port to emerge as the leading bunker destination, were presented.

The speakers exuded confidence that with the given infrastructure and system at Cochin, within next three years, Cochin would easily touch 4 million tons of annual bunker sales and emerge as a prominent bunker hub. 

The price competitiveness of bunker supplies from Cochin, which is comparable to major bunker ports such as Fujairah and Singapore augurs well for Cochin to firmly etch its position as a major bunker point.

The speakers noted that the proactive measures taken by the Cochin Port in providing world class infrastructure and trade friendly procedures makes Cochin the most promising port in the region and the initiative taken by the port was aptly timed.

This event acted as a precursor to the large scale bunker trade that is intended to follow with the setting up of the proposed Multi User Liquid Bulk Terminal at the port’s land at Puthuvypeen.

The focused thrust given by the Port Trust Management and the proactive support from the bunker suppliers, bunker traders and barge operators would go a long way in establishing Cochin Port as the leading bunker point of advantage in the South Asian Region.

Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Matrix Bharat are the lead sponsors of the event which is being co-sponsored by HHA, Chemoil Adani, SKS Logistics, OW Bunkers, Gulf Petrochem, Mark Associates, and Global Fuels & Lubricants Inc.