CHENNAI: Chennai Port will sign a Memorandum of Agreement on Thursday with Kia Motors and Glovis India for export of cars made in the country.

This comes as Kia Motors, the eighth largest automaker, has commenced trial production at its greenfield manufacturing facility at Anantapur in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh early this year. The agreement is also being signed when the entire automobile sector is struggling due to global slump.

Interestingly, Chennai has been a premier car export port over the decades with Hyundai being the major exporter. The port has extended the concession agreement with Hyundai for another 10 years from 2018, according to Chennai Port chairman P Raveendran.

In the current year, till July, Chennai Port handled 57462 cars through 15 vessels as against 39,920 cars through nine vessels during the corresponding period last year, recording a 43.9 per cent growth. To encourage automobile exports and other RoRo exports through Chennai port, the port has developed 11.32 hectares of concrete yard which will see the growth of the above traffic in the coming years.

Another major step taken by Chennai Port in ease of doing business is rationalised vessel-based land allotment process. By this, any importer or exporter or user who wants to get allotment of space for storage of cargo based on arrival of their vessels, allotment is being made on the same day with minimum procedure.

The security deposit requirement for this has been reduced to one month as against three months in the earlier scheme. As per the present scheme, allotment for 15 days is possible.