Strike disrupts India's Haldia port operations

KOLKATA, July 2 (Reuters) - A strike by contract workers in India's eastern port of Haldia has disrupted export shipments of iron ore and import consignments of coal and manganese ore, a senior official in the port said on Thursday.

"Nearly 50 percent of the operations have been affected, since the entire dry-bulk cargo handled by the conventional method has stopped," B. Ray Chaudhuri, general manager at Haldia, told Reuters over telephone. The port handles around 90,000-100,000 tonnes of cargo everyday.

The state government has called a meeting with the strikers, who are demanding higher wages, and others including exporters, importers and handling agents on Friday to resolve the issue, Chaudhuri said.

The waiting time for ships to berth at Haldia has stretched to 20 days and has slowed down neighbouring Paradip port as many ships had been diverted to it, iron ore exporters said. The waiting period usually ranges from a few days to a week, but the contract workers had struck work earlier in June also and had caused a queue, Haldia port officials and exporters said. (Reporting by Niladri Bhattacharya; additional reporting by Ruchira Singh in MUMBAI)