印度首个巨型港口启用
2023-10-17 09:53阅读：
Chinese ship Zhen Hua 15, first cargo vessel to dock at Vizhinjam
Port, carries port equipment at the Vizhinjam International Sea
Port.
“位于印度南部的维津贾姆港15日正式启用，这是印度首个巨型港口，将允许印度从中国主导的国际海上贸易大蛋糕中分得一块。”《印度航运新闻》16日这样评价前一天迎来首艘货船卸货的维津贾姆港。尽管几经推迟、整体项目尚未完工，但维津贾姆港悠久的历史和连通中欧的独特地理位置让印度对这一首个深水港将带来的经济效益满怀期待。不过，渔民的抗议、未见踪迹的配套设施，未来随时可能给印度“泼一瓢冷水”。
维津贾姆港是印度开发的第一个深水转运港口，吃水深度超18米，拥有24米深的天然海底航道，将成为大型船舶停靠的理想枢纽，吸引全世界的船只驶向印度。彭博社分析称，维津贾姆港将从两个方向使印度受益：第一，该港口将直接使印度在全球海上贸易中占据更大的份额，对在该领域占主导地位的中国“发起挑战”；第二，这一港口投入使用将降低印度的物流成本，“帮助其实现成为替代中国的制造中心的愿望”。
“我们预计港口项目将直接或间接地为超过5500人创造就业机会，也很荣幸能有这个机会利用我们的专业知识来改造维津贾姆港，让它能与科伦坡、新加坡、巴生和杰贝阿里港等全球领先港口竞争。”阿达尼港口和经济特区首席执行官卡兰·阿达尼说道。
然而，印度连接港口与陆上仓库和工厂的公路、铁路配套交通网络还没有建立起来。《印度教徒报》13日报道称，维津贾姆港整体项目离完工还很远，当地政府尚未修建连接港口到高速公路、长12公里的道路，甚至没有对此展开公开招标。彭博社分析称，缺乏这
样的主干道支持，对任何港口的发展来说都是“滑铁卢”。
Adani's new mega port can lure world's biggest ships to
India
Vizhinjam port (08º21´N077º00´E), according to Adani Ports website,
will offer a quick turnaround of vessels including Megamax
container ships.
By P R Sanjai
When Zhen Hua 15 — a heavy load cargo carrier sailing from the East
China sea — unloads at Vizhinjam port on Sunday, it’ll do more than
just set down the site’s first gigantic cranes. It will also put
India on the map for world’s biggest container ships.
Located near the southernmost tip of the country, the Vizhinjam
transshipment container port — the first of its kind in the country
that will be inaugurated today, October 15 — will allow India to
grab a bigger slice of the international maritime trade currently
dominated by China. It will also bolster its aspirations to be an
alternative manufacturing hub by reducing logistics costs for cargo
coming to and from the country.
The new terminal will be another feather in the cap of Gautam
Adani’s conglomerate, which faced a scathing short seller attack in
January alleging corporate malfeasance — charges the Adani Group
has denied.
The proximity to the international shipping routes that accounts
for 30 per cent of global cargo traffic and a natural channel that
goes up to 24 meters below the sea makes Vizhinjam an ideal hub for
some of the world’s biggest ships to call in. Until now, the
biggest container ships have been skipping India because its
harbors were not deep enough to handle such vessels and docking at
neighboring ports such as Colombo, Dubai and Singapore.
Transshipment refers to transferring cargo from an original ship to
another, bigger mother ship at a port on the way to the cargo’s
final destination.
The much-awaited deep-sea port along Kerala’s scenic coastline has
been developed by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd. in
collaboration with the local state government. Adani Ports is also
developing Israel’s Haifa port and plans to build a hub in Vietnam,
as part of its expanding global footprint.
“The Indian ocean is 50 per cent of sea trade,” said Chakri
Lokapriya, chief investment officer at TCG Asset Management Co. in
Mumbai. “The Vizhinjam port with its natural advantages will
improve operating margins for Adani Ports.”
Poor shipping connectivity has hindered the country’s integration
into the global value chain, the Reserve Bank of India said in a
2022 report. the country’s container traffic was only 17 million
TEUs in 2020 versus China’s 245 million TEUs, according to a
February 7 statement from the ports ministry.
‘World’s Factory’
“The upcoming ports at Vizhinjam (Kerala) and Vadhavan
(Maharashtra) have natural drafts in excess of 18 meters that would
enable ultra large container and cargo vessels to call on the ports
thereby boosting the efforts to make India the world’s factory” by
improving the container and cargo traffic,” the Ministry said in
the statement.
Vizhinjam port, according to Adani Ports website, will offer a
quick turnaround of vessels including Megamax container ships. It
will have a capacity of 1 million twenty-foot equivalent units, or
TEUs, in the first phase at an investment of 77 billion ($925
million). About 6.2 million TEUs will be added in the subsequent
phases.
Still, running transshipment container terminal won’t be an easy
feat, even for a company with as rich an experience as Adani Ports
that has already faced fishermen protests at this site. A rival
facility in Vallarpadam, operated by Dubai Ports World, has been
dogged by procedural delays.
The transshipment hub also needs to be connected by a network of
road and rail links to warehouses and factories in the hinterland.
Lack of such arterial support “can be the Waterloo” for any port,
said Mathew Antony, managing partner of Aditya Consulting, an
advisory specializing in infrastructure, ports and logistics.
Strategic Location
The federal government is working on a Maritime India Vision 2030
that seeks to develop world-class mega ports, transshipment hubs
and modernise infrastructure at an estimated investment of 1.25
trillion.
As large ships become increasingly more vital to Europe and China
trade, the country can embed itself in that route, given its
strategic location between the Suez Canal and the Strait of
Malacca.
The country’s current container traffic is less than 10 per cent of
China’s but if the Vizhinjam port is able to beckon more ships, it
will give India — and Adani Ports — a stronger footing in global
maritime trade.
