the country. It has been stated that coal and limestone are essential inputs in steel making. Because of the unavailability of materials of the desired quality in requisite amounts from indigenous sources, SAIL, is a regular importer of coal and limestone. The Transport and Shipping Department (presently known as L&I Department) of SAIL, is overall in-charge of receiving imported materials at different ports such as Visakhapatnam, Paradip, Haldia, etc and further transporting them to various integrated steel plants through railways. SAIL has a branch office stationed at each of these ports to oversee the port handling operations. Port handling operations include stevedoring, shore clearance, stacking, wagon loading, etc . For any entity to conduct the business of stevedoring contractor, such entities should possess a Stevedoring License from the concerned Port Authority. Another relevant factor that needs to be highlighted is that SAIL being a regular and bulk importer of its raw materials, resorts to imports that are done on Free on Board basis. The reason for this is that this kind of import works out much more economical in the long run and saves money including valuable foreign exchange thereby reducing the cost of the final products.
