Cargo traffic at major ports up by 5% in Apr-Feb

The country's 12 major ports witnessed a 4.97 per cent rise in cargo traffic at 616.61 million tonnes (MT) during April-February this fiscal, according to ports' body IPA.

These top ports handled 587.41 MT cargo during the corresponding 11-month period of the last fiscal, as per the latest data by the Indian Ports Association (IPA).

The growth in the traffic was mainly on the back of higher handling of products like petroleum, oil and lubricants (POL), containers, coal and fertilisers.

POL traffic grew by about 8.13 per cent during the period under review, while containers saw growth of more than 8.37 per cent.

 

Fertilisers traffic volumes grew by 4.50 per cent during the eleven-month period, and coking coal handling grew by 4.36 per cent in April-February over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

Kandla port handled the highest traffic volume at 99.87 MT during the April-February period of the current fiscal followed by Paradip Port at 93.15 MT, JNPT Port at 59.87 MT, Visakhapatnam at 57.69 MT and Mumbai at 57.40 MT, the IPA said.

Kolkata Port, including Haldia handled 52.04 MT of cargo, while Chennai port handled 47.58 MT of cargo.

Volume of seaborne cargo is essentially in the nature of derived demand and is mainly shaped by the levels and changes in both the global and domestic activity.

India has 12 major ports: Kandla, Mumbai, JNPT, Marmugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore, V O Chidambarnar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) which handle approximately 61 per cent of the country's total cargo traffic.