M A I N   N E W S

Kandla shadow on region’s industry
From Raman Mohan

HISAR, Feb 2 — Industrial activity in the region is slowly grinding to a halt due to the unavailability of raw materials following the closure of the Kandla port in Gujarat because of extensive damage by the earthquake. This may lead to a shortage of edible oils in the region in the next few days.

According to information culled from various websites, the eighth jetty (container yard) has been totally lost while the first and the third jetties have been extensively damaged. The administrative building has collapsed and the area has become marshy due to water. Besides, the Kandla highway as well as the inner roads linking various parts of the port have been badly damaged. Hundreds of trucks are stranded inside the port area.

There have been no dispatches from the port since January 26 barring the dozen odd loaded vehicles, which had been awaiting departure when the tragedy struck. This has caused a severe shortage of raw materials for an assortment of industrial units situated in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir.

The worst affected is edible oil industry with about 100 units in these states dependent on imported oil received from the Kandla port. A few of the smaller units have already closed down having exhausted their raw materials stocks within three days of the closure of the port.

The bigger units that have large storage capacities have scaled down production considerably. However, even these units are planning to shut down operations in a day or so as there is yet no report on when the supplies from Kandla will resume.

Haryana has eight vanaspati and refined oil plants. The biggest of them producing Gagan brand of oils and vanaspati is likely to shut down. Likewise, the 30-odd vanaspati units in Punjab too are reeling under the shortage of crude edible oils. Reports received from Rajasthan said 10 of its 15 units have closed down temporarily for the same reason. The two refineries in Himachal Pradesh may face the same fate shortly.

Edible oil industry sources said they could not use crude oil from Mumbai since the additional transportation costs would make their produce costlier than others. Already the industry is working on wafer thin margins and any additional cost would cause heavy losses, they added.

They say that if the port does not resume operations within the next few days, the region could face a severe shortage of edible oils. Already, prices have begun to rise gradually.

The metal industry is the next in line. Most of the scrap for the metal units in the region comes from Kandla and Bhavnagar. With the closure of the Kandla port, supplies have been reduced to a trickle.

Plastic industry is also dependent on Kandla for its raw material supplies. There is a very large number of small plastic units spread all over the region, which manufacture items of mass daily consumption. Paucity of raw materials has pushed up prices and hundreds of small units have already laid off labour.