Moving Cars On Ship: Cochin Port Kicks Off Car Carrier Operations

Car carrier ship M V Dresden will make its first call at the Cochin Port carrying 500 new cars, in a major step towards easing automobile movement within parts of India.

The 177-metre-long ship of Cyprus registration will be the first foreign flag bearing vessel licensed to ferry cars between ports in India. It will ply along the Ennore-Cochin-Kandla-Cochin-Ennore route, linking the automobile production hubs in Tamil Nadu in the east coast, and Gujarat and Haryana in the west coast.

With 13 decks and the capacity to carry 4,300 cars, M V Dresden will help in tapping the coastal logistics potential of a country that now depends on huge carrier trucks to transport cars on highly congested roads.

Cochin Port could become a key player in coastal car transportation. Fifty ship calls a year with 1,000 cars per call will be required if 30 per cent of the Kerala market opts for this transport mode.

The prospect of the port attracting an increased coastal movement of cars will open new avenues for leading manufacturers transiting cars to dealers in Kerala from Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Haryana. Kerala is a major car market with annual sales of about 1,50,000 to 1,80,000 units.

However, all is not well. Although moving cars by ships does help decongest roads trucks will still have to be used to move cars to ports. According to industry personnel it takes twice the amount of time to move cars by ships than by roads. Besides there usually isn’t any ‘return cargo’. So the ships have to come back empty which adds to the costs.