Aegis Logistics, the biggest oil, gas and chemical logistics provider in the country (Aegis Mumbai, Aegis Pipapav, Aegis Haldia) is setting up a necklace of terminals for handling liquid bulk around the Indian coast according to Anish Chandaria their Managing Director & CEO.

He spoke on the high standards and high level of safety compliance set by his company, which has state of the art installations at Mumbai, Kochi, Haldia and Pipavav. “We are investing up to $ 182 million in the next five years to expand our existing facilities and setting up new ones so that importers and exporters of bulk liquid can operate.”

India needs to enhance more port capacity and increase the capacity of setting up of additional jetties, more port capacity for the betterment of trade. MbPT new major bulk chemical terminal will double the capacity of the Mumbai Port. “We can observe more ports, more capacity and more participation of the trade in the nearest future,” added Mr. Chandaria.

Phenomenal rise in the import and export of liquid bulk cargo is set to drive capacity growth at Indian ports. As this commodity has proved a major revenue earner for ports like Mumbai Port Trust, the government is increasingly focusing on developing infrastructure for facilitating greater throughput of liquid bulk cargo at various ports.

Facilitating the robust demand for liquid bulk, the All India Liquid Bulk Importers and Exporters Association (AILBIEA) has been serving as the driving force for promoting the liquid bulk international trade of the country. 

Around 12 years ago, in order to meet the felt need for collective effort to address the multi-dimensional issues of bulk trade in liquid cargoes, AILBIEA was formed with the active assembly of several stake-holders – corporate and trading houses, service providers and others concerned. These entities handle petroleum products, edible oils, chemicals, industrial oils, etc.

Speaking at the 12th Anniversary function of the AILBIEA, Milind Deora, Union Minister of State, Ministry of Shipping & Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India, pointed out that the liquid bulk sector is very important for the growth of Indian economy.

The dependence on liquid bulk imports will be at the normal 70 % to 75 % levels, with crude and edible oils, continuing to be the major components of the country’s import bill. 

Mr. Deora stated, “India was the second largest liquid bulk importing country. It is heartening to note that 60 per cent of the revenue of Mumbai port is attributed to liquid bulk cargo, (as informed by Rajeev Gupta, MbPT Chairman).

The need of the hour is to meet the demands of the ever increasing volumes of liquid bulk sector, through setting up of ideal infrastructure across the ports and hinterland.” 

He further added that Ministry of Shipping would actually strive to attract private investment. There is lot of improvement and huge scope for investment in port sector and AILBIEA through proper coordination with the port sector, Ministry of Shipping, importers / exporters and other governmental bodies could concentrate on plans for increasing the storage capacities and setting up additional jetties exclusively for Liquid Bulk. 

The customs too are pooling in to help boost the liquid bulk trade. A K Kaushal, Chief Commissioner of Customs – Mumbai Zone I while complimenting AILBIEA for its excellent performance in the last 11 years referred to the large scope for liquid bulk sector.

“Being the customs officer, I have plans for bigger investment to improvise the liquid bulk market,” he said. “AILBIEA’s cooperation and support is very important for the customs to achieve the set target.”