Nehru Port bucks downturn, up 2.8pc in 2009 fiscal

CONTAINER volume Jawaharlal Nehru port, India's busiest, rose 2.8 per cent in 2009 fiscal, ending in March.

Volume for the period totalled 4.06 million TEU, up from 3.95 million TEU recorded last year, the Journal of Commerce reported. AP Moller-Maersk-operated Gateway Terminals, the port's third box terminal, led throughput with 1.75 million TEU, followed by DP World's Nhava Sheva with 1.53 million TEU, and the state-owned facility with 0.78 million TEU.

Total tonnage was up six per cent at 60.75 million tons, a marked improvement over the 57.3 million tons recorded during the 2008-2009 cycle.

Nehru Port, south of Mumbai, which moves close to 60 per cent of India's container traffic, is currently undergoing infrastructure augmentation works, which include the installation of four post-Panamax rail-mounted cranes, a 330-metre berth extension, and the development of a fourth container terminal.

Plans for further gantry crane purchases, and a dredging to accommodate for 6,000 plus TEU vessels, are also in the pipeline.

(Source: Schednet)