VIJAYAWADA: Granite quarry owners in Prakasam district are worried as an estimated `600 crore worth granite exports got held up due to lack of loading and unloading of granite at Xiamen port in China and at Krishnapatnam port and at various granite quarries in the district.
Attributing the situation to the coronavirus outbreak, Galaxy Granite Quarry Owners Association general secretary MA Azeem says, “Two vessels with around 1,20,000 tonnes of granite are anchored off the coast of Xiamen port and two vessels are still in transit. “As a result, loading of granite is not taking place at Krishnapatnam port and with no containers available, granite shipments from quarries are also hit. These all put together will be around two vessels’ load,” he said. In other words, a total 1,20,000 cubic metres of granite exports are held up, which in monetary terms stand at `600 crore (calculated at `50,000 per cubic metre, which is the average cost). Further compounding the problem, there are no containers available to clear the mined stone from the quarries and it has a cascading effect on mining and sales,” says Azeem.
With such volume of exports and the amount of money got held up, granite quarry owners are in a fix as to how to overcome the crisis. They are also worried about fresh orders for the granite exports to China. India is the biggest exporter of granite to Xiamen, followed by Brazil and South Africa. AP accounts for major share of granite exports from the country. There is a reason for the worries of the granite exporters in the State, which is the lack of visits of representatives from Chinese companies to granite quarries in Prakasam district.
Usually, 150 to 200 representatives from the Chinese granite companies visit Prakasam district every month on an average to place their orders. Their visit is mandatory as the orders are placed only after the physical inspection of the granite in the quarries.
The last time, these traders visited Prakasam district was on January 15 before taking nearly one month’s holiday. With India suspending issuance of visas to Chinese in view of the coronavirus outbreak, the traders from China are not able to visit Prakasam till normalcy is restored.
The situation will have a cascading effect with granite units forced to bring down the number of shifts from three to two and then to one in quarries to bring down the production of granite temporarily.
There are around 20,000 people directly employed in about 250 granite quarries in Prakasam district. Around 45,000 to 50,000 people are indirectly dependent on granite quarries for their livelihood.
The average monthly production of granite is around 50,000 cubic metres and of which 25,000 to 30,000 cubic metres of material gets exported with a major chunk of it to China and the rest to East Asian countries. These granite quarries fetch the State government around `250 crore revenue per annum.
