KOCHI: The first call of a Car Carrier ship, M.V. Dresden is scheduled reach Cochin Port on Monday. The ship, a foreign carrier of Cyprus registration, has obtained license for coastal run between the ports in India. The Car Carrier has the circuit of Ennore-Cochin-Kandla-Cochin-Ennore, connecting the automobile production hubs in Tamil Nadu in the East coast and Gujarat and Haryana in the West coast of India. The ship has 13 decks with the capacity to carry 4,300 cars.
The Car Carrier will be landing 500 cars at Cochin. The ship will be carrying the vehicles of Renault, Ford, Hyundai and Toyota from Tamil Nadu and Honda and Ford from Gujarat. Cochin Port has identified the Q7 berth at Ernakulam Wharf for handling the ship, and a clean yard of 4,000 Sq m area at Q7 is allotted for storage of cars until delivery to dealers, which is normally expected in a week’s time.
Kerala is a major consumption centre of cars with annual sales of about 150,000 to 180,000 units, which is highly significant in determining logistic patterns, according to a release by Cochin Port Trust. The present mode of movement of automobiles in the country is dominated by huge car carrier trucks plying on our congested roads, and Kerala is no exception. Therefore, the potential coastal transport market segment could be strong; 50 ship calls a year with 1,000 cars per call will be required if 30 per cent of the Kerala market shifts to the coastal transport mode.
