Kochi could easily touch four million tonnes of annual bunker sales and emerge as a prominent bunker hub with its given infrastructure, according to industry experts who spoke at a national bunker business meet, a platform of major stakeholders in the bunker trade in India, which was organised by the Cochin Port Trust here on Thursday.
“The price competitiveness of bunker supplies from Kochi is comparable to major bunker ports such as Fujairah and Singapore and this augurs well for Kochi to ensure its position as a major bunker point,” they said.
Six papers, covering varied topics ranging from international bunkering trends, bunkering scenario in India, initiatives taken by oil majors and the potential of the Cochin Port to emerge as the leading bunker destination, were presented.
Director General of Shipping Gautam Chatterjee inaugurated the conference. Senior executives of all major players such as Chandan Samaiyar of Glander International, D K Basu of Indian Oil, Ashish Khanna of HPCL, Richard D’Souza of Matrix Bharat, Manoj Tandon of Chemoil Adani and 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.
The event was attended by ship owners, vessel agents, bunker suppliers, bunker traders, barge operators and other allied service providers from the Indian bunker industry. K N Raghavan, Commissioner (Customs), IOC executive director Sharat C Meshram and HPCL executive director S Jeyakrishna also spoke.
Source:- newindianexpress.com
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