India's sea cargo tonnage near pre-pandemic levels

Reaching the pre-pandemic levels in exports and imports, even in volume ter­ms, is no mean achievem­ent

The export figures for Dece­mber 2021 at $37.29 billion, the highest ever for any month and an increase of 37.0% over December 2020 and 37.55% over December 2019, are very heartening. However, the figures for tonnage of cargo handled at the sea ports that acc­ount for over 90% of imp­orts and exports in volume terms are not that encouraging.
 
During April-December 2021, the exports and imports showed, in value terms, an increase of 48.85% and 69.27% respectively over the April-December 2020 period. Howe­ver, the cargo handled at India’s dozen State-owned ma­jor ports rose only by 10.74% during that period.