Indian port traffic up 5.5% this year

Traffic handled at major ports in India saw a growth of 5.5 percent in the April 2009-February 2010 period, compared with the corresponding period a year ago, signalling a gradual revival in exports as the world economy began easing itself out of the financial meltdown, Financial Express (India) reported.

Traffic volumes at India's 12 major ports grew on a yearly basis to 509 million tonnes in April to February 2010, from 482 million tonnes in April 2008 to February 2009.

"Domestic volumes and imports were less impacted by the slowdown and they bounced back quickly. Exports were sluggish during the slowdown, and now the increase in port traffic indicates a recovery on the exports front," said S Kulkarni, secretary of the Indian National Shipowners Association (Insa).

"An increase of 5.54 percent, however, is modest compared to the average yearly growth of 10-12 percent that we have seen in the past. As time passes and trade picks up, we'll see more growth in the coming years," he added.

The figure, however, is more than double the mere 2.2 percent growth in port traffic reported during the April 2008-Mar 2009 period, when the slowdown hit exports the worst. The rise in port traffic for the April 2009-February 2010 period was triggered by a 21.57 percent growth in cargo to 85.9 million tonnes, coupled with a 2.77 percent increase in container traffic, which increased to 91.2 million tonnes.

(Source: Cargo News Asia)