Major Ports post 1.17 pc growth in cargo throughput

Cargo handled at the 12 Major Ports of India during April-July grew by a marginal 1.17 per cent, year-on-year, to 180.1 million tonnes, as against 178 million tonnes, according Exim News Service.

The data mainly covers movements of products like iron ore, petroleum, oil and lubricants (POL), fertilisers and coal, besides container cargo.

However, production of these commodities had shot up by 26.7 per cent in June.
Traffic volume at the Major Ports is still about 5 per cent lower than the target of 189.6 million tonnes set by the Shipping Ministry for April-July.

China, which was on an iron ore buying spree, has not restored demand to the original level, and hence, iron ore exports are suffering. The trend is expected to continue till the end of December this year, a top Indian National Shipowners’ Association (INSA) official feels.

The export duty has made iron ore more expensive than the product of Brazil. Steel production has gone down, leading to less imports of coking coal.

This has affected the performance of the 12 Major Ports. Their throughput has declined by 1.96 per cent year-on-year to 8.3 million tonnes in April-July 2009.

During the same period last year, the volume of iron ore handled at the Ports had risen by 12.85 per cent to 30.8 million tonnes and that of coking coal by 40.44 per cent to 10.9 million tonnes.

Container traffic declined by 5.4 per cent, with the Major Ports handling just 2.2 million TEUs.

During April-July 2008, container traffic had increased by 11.28 per cent, and POL cargo by 1.96 per cent to 56.7 million tonnes.

(Source: Transport Weekly)