Smaller ports hit as volumes dip; major ports sail on efficiency

Cargo traffic at major ports up 4.1% y-o-y during April-Sept 2015; 1% decline in non-major ones

In a reversal of trend, the major ports in the country have outpaced the non-major ones in cargo growth during the first six months of the current fiscal year. During April-September 2015, while cargo traffic at all ports increased by 1.1 per cent, major ports reported an increase of 4.1 per cent. Non-major ports, however, reported a decline of one per cent over the corresponding period in 2014-15.

While in 2014-15, the cargo traffic of Indian ports had increased by 8.2 per cent to 1,052.2 million tonne, traffic at non-major ports has risen at a faster rate than at major ports. According to K Ravichandran, senior vice-president and co-head, corporate ratings, ICRA, “This is mainly attributed to the decline in cargo volume of coal imports, iron ore, and other cargo at non-major ports. The coal import witnessed a negative growth of 7 per cent, iron ore (11 per cent) and other cargo decline by 11 per cent. Only, the container traffic grew by 9 per cent during the period. This has led to a decline of 1 per cent.”

On outlook for the current year, he added, "The major ports are likely to be achieve a growth of 3-4 per cent this year while the growth of non-major ports is likely to be stagnant.”

Cargo traffic at ports (in million tonne)
Category	2013-14	2014-15	April-Sep
			2014-15 (P)	2015-16 (P)
Major Ports	555.49 (1.8)	581.33 (4.7)	287.74 (3.8)	299.58 (4.1)
Non-Major Ports	416.96 (7.5)	471.19 (13)	228.14 (11.8)	225.92 (-1)
All Ports	972.45 (4.1)	1,052.52 (8.2)	515.88 (7.2)	525.50 (1.1)
Source: Ministry of Shipping; Figures in parenthesis indicate percentage growth over previous year; P-Provisional

While in the last three years, the non-major ports has outpaced the major ports in the growth. Also, it has showed continuous increase in overall cargo volume.

The shipping ministry attributed the success of major ports as various modernization work done by the ports to increase efficiency. Further, the  major ports handled 499.23 million tonnes during April 2014 to January 2016 against 483.02 million tonne handled during the corresponding period of previous year.  The overall growth in traffic handled has been 3.36 per cent during the period. Data for non-major ports could not be accessed.

According to officials, the major ports in the country registered an overall improvement in the performance parameters during April to December 2015 as compared to corresponding period of last year, leading to higher growth.

The overall performance of the major ports is broadly measured by three  parameters viz. average turn-round time of vessels on port (in days), average pre-berthing time on port (in hours) and average output per ship berthday (in tonnes).

During April-December 2015, the average turn-round time – reduced to 2.12 days against 2.30 days during the corresponding period of the last year.

Further, average pre-berthing time – reduced to 3.97 hours against 5.55 hours. Also, the average output per ship berthday – increased to 12,614 tonnes against 12, 313 tonnes.
 
India has 187 non-major ports and 12 major ports. Prominent non-major ports are Adani Ports and Special Economic Zones’s flagship Mundra Port, Reliance Jamnagar Port (captive), Krishnapatnam (Chennai), Essar Vadinar and Kakinada Seaports.