Monthly box handling at Major Ports climbs to 4-year high

An increase in export-imports at Major Ports has led to 9.3 million tonnes of containers being handled in April, as against 7.6 million tonnes in April 2009, a growth of 23 per cent.

This is the highest monthly cargo volume handled in the last four years, say analysts.

This translates into the handling of 6.30 lakh TEUs in April, as against 5.19 lakh TEUs in April last year, a growth of 21 per cent.

The maximum box traffic growth was recorded at the Chennai terminals (over 50 per cent), and at JN Port where the growth was 16 per cent, according to Indian Ports Association (IPA) figures.

"Historically, container volumes on a sequential month during April over March show a decline as companies rush their orders in March on account of the closing of the financial year.

"This year was an exception on account of a pick-up in trade volumes and companies preferring to ship their goods in containers," an analyst observed.

Total traffic volumes at the Major Ports went up by 2.7 per cent year-on-year in April 2010. This is the fourth consecutive increase since January this year.

Port traffic was helped by a 12.8 per cent growth in iron ore trade, that stood at 97.4 lakh tonnes in April.

According to IPA data, traffic in April 2010 declined by 10 per cent sequentially to 46.6 million tonnes and went up by 3 per cent on a yearly basis.

This general decline in port traffic was driven by substantially weaker petroleum, oil and lubricants (POL) volumes, down by 13 per cent from March, the highest decline on sequential months in the last one year.

The fall in POL volumes was 18 per cent at Kandla over March, which contributes 27 per cent of the total POL volumes. Other Major Ports like Chennai, Cochin, New Mangalore and Visakhapatnam also noted a decline in their POL volumes over March.
Commodities like fertiliser, coal and other cargo also recorded a fall in volume.
New Mangalore, Ennore, Vizag, Paradip and Kolkata Ports saw a decline in their traffic during the month. Cochin, JN Port, Mumbai and Kandla Ports reported increases in cargo , Exim News Service informs.

Source: Transport Weekly