Shipping and clearing agents at Gwadar port Tuesday demanded Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) to review its recent decision of diverting TCP’s urea ships to Karachi port which they claimed were already congested. They also demanded that the Government of Pakistan to abrogate the 40-year concession agreement with Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) which they claimed had failed to bring a single commercial vessel to the deep-sea port. “Neither the government nor PSA fulfilled the commitments they had made in the agreement,” President Shipping and Clearing Agents Association (GSCAA) Abdul Rahim Zafar told a briefing at Karachi Press Club. Accompanied by other GSCAA office bearers, Hameed Baloch and Majeed Baloch, GSCAA President said he had submitted his Association’s pleas to the ministry of finance and Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to review ECC’s latest decision. He highlighted various key achievements of Gwadar port saying, since 20th November, 2011 the port had offloaded 722,000 tonnes of urea in a record time of 40 days, hence, enabling the government to meet the nationwide demand of urea. Explaining the monetary dynamics of business in Gwadar, Zafar said, Gwadar port had an average draught of 12.5 metres, whereas, Karachi port trust had a maximum draught of 11.6 metres. Gwadar port, he said, because of its draught size had the ability to manage ships carrying a cargo equivalent to 50,000 tonnes at a time, whereas, Karachi port could only manage cargo equivalent up to 35,000 tonnes. “It is this facility which enabled the government to order a larger amount of urea in a short span of time – a major saving of the country’s foreign exchange,” he said. Hameed Baloch, a member GSCAA, said free of cost warehousing facility was provided at Gwadar Port prior to its transportation to the mainland. No other port in Pakistan offered this service, he claimed. Due to the heavy traffic of ships at Karachi port, a hefty amount of demurrage has to be paid by the government in the form of foreign exchange to the ships that have been detained.
