Vizag port H1 cargo handling matches previous year figures

In spite of sharp fall in petroleum products handling, the port of Visakhapatnam, the premier port in the country, with lot of difficulty has achieved the last year's figures on cargo handling during the first six months of current fiscal.

During the first quarter of the current fiscal, the port registered a shortfall of about 3 lakh tonnes of cargo as compared to the last fiscal's first quarter. In addition to this, the port has lost huge quantities of transshipment cargo during the first six months of this fiscal, even though the port has managed to reach the last fiscal first half cargo figures.

"We have lost about 26 lakh tonnes of petroleum products during this first half, as compared to last fiscal's corresponding period. Despite this setback, we have crossed the last year cargo figures. This was possible because of considerable increase in iron ore handling," Dattu Raju, the Traffic Manager, Visakhapatnam Port, told Business Standard.

During the first six months of the current year, the port has handled 234.38 lakh tonnes of cargo as against 233.93 lakh tonnes of cargo during the last fiscal's corresponding period. During the first half, the port handled only 68 lakh tonnes of petroleum products, where as it handled 94 lakh tonnes of petroleum products during the last fiscal, thus registering a shortfall of 26 lakh tonnes.

"A heavy drop in crude transshipment leads to a shortfall in petroleum products handling," he said. Actually, the Ministry of Shipping has given a target of handling about 60 lakh tonnes of crude transshipment this year, whereas the port has achieved only 15 lakh tonnes by the end of September.

The port is expecting only another 15 lakh tonnes of crude transshipment during the next six months of the current fiscal.

In Visakhapatnam port, however, the Iron ore exports were increased significantly. "During last fiscal first six months we has exported 48 lakh tonnes of iron ore, where as during the first six months of current fiscal we has exported 75 lakh tonnes of iron ore, and we are expecting iron ore exports will cross 140 lakh tonnes during the fiscal", traffic manager revealed.

During the last fiscal port handled 477.4 lakh tonnes of cargo, and this year it is expecting 480 lakh tonnes of cargo, but the Ministry of Shipping has given a target of 495 lakh tonnes for the year 2004-05 to Visakhapatnam port.