Container cargo only bright spot with 33 per cent growth.
The global economic downturn has cast a shadow on the performance of the New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) during 2008-09. The cargo traffic from NMPT has remained flat for the year at 36.69 million tonnes compared to 36.02 million tonnes during the previous year, a marginal growth of 1.86 per cent. Diversion of certain goods by its users to other major ports in the east coast also contributed to the decline in NMPT’s traffic.
The ministry of surface transport had set a target of 40.34 million tonnes for NMPT during 2008-09 considering its previous year’s performance. However, the port could not achieve the target as some of its users had run into trouble last year.
For example, the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), a major user of the port had faced breakdown in one of its two refining units during the first quarter of last fiscal. Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd (KIOCL), another major customer, has seen a drop in its iron ore exports due to lack of demand in the overseas markets, trade sources said.
While MRPL showed a decline of 2.3 per cent in its crude imports and 2.8 per cent drop in export of petroleum products, KIOCL’s exports came down by around 42 per cent during the year. Movement of some commodities like timber and granite movement was diverted to Chennai and Tuticorin ports due to certain restrictions imposed by the state government on their movements, the sources said.
However, the port has some good news during the year. Its container traffic has seen a robust 33 per cent growth at 28,555 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) for the year. While the imports were up by 31.5 per cent at 14,483 TEUs, the export of container cargo was up by 34.6 per cent at 14,072 TEUs during the year. Major containerised commodities handled by the port were raw cashew, wooden logs, coffee, wax candles, gherkins among others.
A major achievement of the port during the year was handling of 7 mainline vessels which came from East and West African countries carrying raw cashewnut.
“The advantage of handling mainline vessel is that it comes in directly without going through trans-shipment port at Colombo and thereby reduces time by 13 days and works out lower tariff for the trade,” a trade source said.
Despite poor performance by KIOCL, the port has reported 21 per cent growth in iron ore fines exports at 8.1 million tonnes. It has also shown growth in the import of coal, edible oil, limestone and cement during the year.
NMPT, the only major port in Karnataka, also handled a record 1,184 vessels during the year as against 1,144 vessels in the previous year, a marginal growth of 3.4 per cent. The port witnessed decline in the number of cruise vessels. As against 16 cruise vessels handled in 2007-08, only 7 vessels came to Mangalore during 2008-09, as a result of terrorist attack in Mumbai in November last year.
