Industrial visit to Hasti Petroleum Chemical and Shipping Limited (HPCSL) – The Thar Dry Port, which Is located in Sanand. This trip was conducted specially for 3rd year, 5th semester students. Once we were there, we had introductions and were briefed in the conference room, where they showed us an Audio Visual of the port. This session amongst other things, focused on the Inland Container Port (ICD), where we learnt that the products from the factory comes to ICD and then it goes to the Port. ICD is a “decongest port”. They also told us to go through their Incoterms, which describes the terms of sale and which are a set of 11 internationally recognized rules which define the responsibilities of sellers and buyers. Incoterms specify who is responsible for paying for and managing the shipment, insurance, documentation, customs clearance, and other logistical activities. Mainly it is the responsibility of export and import. they talked about a term called credit period which means the number of days that a customer is allowed to wait before paying an invoice. There are two types of sale; one is domestic sale and another is international sale. They also discussed a new term called instrument letter of credit which means an arrangement whereby bank acting at the request of a customer (Importer / Buyer), undertakes to pay for the goods / services, to a third party (Exporter / Beneficiary) by a given date, on documents being presented in compliance with the conditions laid down. We got to know that there are two types of containers based on their sizes. One is 20 feet container and another is 40 feet container. The mode of transportation they use are Road and Rail. We had a query that out of both transport modes, which is preferable and cost effective. Mr. Hitesh Jadhav the General Manager, clarified that the most preferable transportation is rail as they can load more containers into it and because of this, it is most cost – effective and also it is much safer. They had license agreement of Import Export Code license (IEC). We raised another query regarding the damages. If in any case the container is going through by road and in any case the vehicle faced any issue such as accident or something else, they said before the goods/container goes for shipment we get an insurance of the same. Containers are made in ICD and the Port. These containers are handled by the shipping lines. The challenges that are faced by the logistics is mainly transport. To overcome this challenge, they owned 200 vehicles to minimize the hurdles. After this session we went for a site visit. We visited an empty container yard, where we saw racks and we were told that it carries 90 wagons. There were rack rails for export, import. Next, we went to export warehouse, there we were told that there are two types of stuffing – one is factory stuff like Arvind ltd. And another one is doc stuff. They told about the nature of packaging that is Palette, wooden, drum, container, these all depends upon the commodity. We saw some goods are packed and labelled properly and are ready for the shipment. This warehouse was spread over 18000 sq.ft. But overall ICD is covered with 3,00,000 sq.ft. They explained how to read a container, this included, 20 ft and 40 ft container, 4 alphabets, unique number (all these are the mark for and identification of each and every container. These are mentioned on the doors itself). The weighing capacity means it is the gross capacity and tare weight means empty weight. There is an approved safety plate as well and also a seal. Seal is also of two types – Custom and RFID (shipper). We also saw an Eco – friendly container it is made up of bamboo flooring, waterborne paint system and waterborne sealant. Here we learnt various SDGs as well. After this we went into a 40 ft empty container and then import warehouse. We were given an idea about what operations are involved while loading the container. We also got to know that there are various employees who are skilled and semi-skilled who are operating these machineries. We could able to learn about the customs, rules and regulations, duties, rights, taxes, and so on. After coming from site visit, we took rest and got excellent refreshments.
At last, I would like to conclude that, from this whole visit we learnt many things, were able to take valuable insights out of that, we had a great interaction with Mr. Hitesh Jadhav, the General Manager and Mr. Raghunath Ram, the Assistant Manager. We would easily relate our theoretical knowledge into practical life. Whatever we have been taught till now everything was shown in practical way which made our day memorable. Now we know how goods are shipped across the countries and other countries. I would really show my gratitude towards our Dean, Mr. Salim Shamsher and Mr. Pabitra Ranjan, Professor, for organizing such a wonderful trip. I hope that we can get this great opportunity again.
