Backed by fertilizers and thermal coal, major seaports handled 433.86 million tonnes in the first nine months of current fiscal, an increase of 5.04 per cent over the corresponding period last year.
Mormugao Port topped the chart with an impressive growth of 19.89 per cent, followed by Kamarajar Port (14.27 per cent) and Kolkata Dock System (13.29 per cent). Traffic in the remaining ports was in single digit. Compared to the previous quarters, the ports of Kandla, Chennai and Paradip handled more volumes. All the 11 major ports recorded a healthy growth, except New Mangalore Port, which reported a decline of 7.64 per cent in its traffic volume. The performance of New Mangalore Port was impacted due to a dip in the volumes of petroleum, oil and lubricants (POL), iron ore, thermal coal, containers and other cargo. On the other hand, Chennai Port showed improvement in all sectors, except iron ore.
During the period under review, iron ore volume dipped by 29.69 per cent. Out of the six ports, four ports handled less iron ore than the previous period, while there was a marginal improvement in Kandla. Kolkata maintained its output. Coking coal also dipped by 6.81 per cent.
ADVERTISEMENT
On the container front, these ports handled 5.9 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers against 5.5 million TEUs.
A substantial increase in the cargo handling by the major ports in terms of finished and raw fertilizers, thermal coal and other cargo enabled the ports to handle more volume than the previous quarters. POL imports were just 1.06 per cent.