On 8th July, 2001, MV Sea Dance, carrying 27300 tonnes of heavy melting scrap for the Works, was set to sail to its final port of call at Haldia, after discharging 8000mtonnes of her cargo at Pradip. On 9th July, at the Haldia Dock Complex, the port authorities at the eleventh hour reneged on their commitment to provide the requisite land with railway siding facilities for storing the scrap.
Thud ! What a shock !! It sent tremors!!! Detaining the sprit at Pradip and discharging the entire cargo there appeared to be the only option available. However, it meant a worshipping loss of Rs. 7 million for the Steel Company.
 No way. The Officers of the Haldia Unit of Tata Steel immildiately
began to think. Think, think, think. A way out of this almost impossible situation had to
be found. After intense deliberations, the Haldia Team came up with an
"out-of-the-box" solution. Why not use Tata Steel's own plot inside the
port normally meant for limestone/coal storage for this purpose?A terrific thought! Work began. Besides providing storage space for the scrap, it also meant an additional saving of Rs. 2.4 million (in plot rent). However, phenomenal logistics issue had to be resolved since imported anthracite (also for Jamshedpur) and imported coke (for trading) had to be stored in the same plot. Other staple items like imported semi-soft coking coal and limestone also had to be handled. This meant almost doubling of the rate of depatches to Jamshedpur, besides extra vigilance for the next 3 months to prevent contamination of any item with the plot flowing to the brim with five different types of cargo. Wham! Bang!! What a time. Such a situation had never arisen in ten years history of Haldia. There was more. Owing to a saving of Rs.110 per tonne in handling cost, Tata Steel had appointed a new handling agent for this cargo at Haldia, which had created its own undercurrents. MV Sea Dance berthed at Haldia on 21th July, 2001 and commenced discharge. What followed was a daily struggle against all odds. As the discharge progressed, another innovation was introduced - excavators were deployed inside the hatches for enhancing the discharge rate. The last rake carrying scrap left Haldia for Jamshedpur on 23rd September. The entire operation was handled successfully by Tata Steel's Haldia Team. Total savings Rs. 12.4 million! Lots of customer delight!! Time and tide wait for no man; the Team did not wait either. |
