Major ports register growth of 3.27% during Apr-Oct

The Dollar Business Bureau

The major Indian ports have witnessed a positive growth of 3.27% during first seven months of the current fiscal, with the highest growth recorded by Cochin Port at 17.66%. In terms of commodity, the highest growth was recorded in the cargo of petroleum, oil and lubricants (POL) at 34.07%.

“The major ports in India have recorded a growth of 3.27% during the period April to September, 2017 and together handled 383 million tonnes of cargo as against 371 million tonnes handled during the corresponding period of previous year, said a statement by Ministry of Shipping.

Out of a dozen major ports, eight ports including Cochin, Kolkata, Chennai, Paradip, Mumbai, New Mangalore, Kandla and JNPT witnessed a positive growth in traffic during the April-October period.

The Cochin Port growth, at 17.66%, was majorly due to rise in traffic of containers and petroleum, oil and lubricants.

“In Kolkata Port, overall growth was positive i.e. 12.39%. Kolkata Dock System (KDS) registered traffic growth of 3.80% and Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) registered positive growth of 16.66%,” said the statement.

In terms of traffic, Kandla Port handled the maximum volume with 63.13 million tonnes, followed by Paradip with 55.78 million tonnes, JNPT with 37.90 million tonnes, Mumbai with 36.72 million tonnes, and Visakhapatnam with 35.74 million tonnes. Collectively, these five ports handled about 60% of the traffic at the major ports.

Commodity-wise, petroleum, oil and lubricants have the maximum percentage share of 34.07%, followed by containers with 20.01% share, thermal & steam coal with 12.81%, other miscellaneous cargo with 12.24%, coking & other coal with 7.57%, and iron ore & pellets with 6.61% share.