Cargo handled by major ports up 13.45 million tonnes in April-December 2015

Buoyed by the levels and changes of demand, both in the domestic and global activity, cargo traffic at India's twelve major ports witnessed an increase of 13.45 million tonnes during the period of April-December-2015 as compared to last year.

Cargo traffic at India's 12 major ports stood at 447.05 million tonnes during the period between April-December 2015 compared with 433.5 million tonnes handled during April-December 2014.

During the last three quarters of 2015-16, cargo traffic handled at the major ports recorded a growth of 4.3 per cent in the first quarter (April-June), 3.8 per cent in the second quarter (July-September) and 1.4 per cent in the third quarter (October- December).

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. The growth for the first three quarters of 2015-16 stood at 3.2 per cent.

During the first nine months of 2015-16, Murmugao port recorded the highest growth in traffic at 35.3 per cent, followed by Chidambaranar (19.3 per cent), Haldia Dock Complex (13.8 per cent), Kolkata Dock Systems (12.5 per cent), Paradip Port (5.2 per cent), Kandla Port (4.3 per cent), Cochin Port (3.1 per cent), Kamarajar Port (1.5 per cent), Mumbai Port ((0.5 per cent) and JNPT Port at 0.3 per cent.

Three ports, namely New Mangalore Port (- 6.7 per cent), Chennai Port (- 5.9 per cent) and Visakhapatnam Port (- 3.5 per cent), respectively, witnessed negative growth during the period.

Among major ports, Kandla Port handled the maximum cargo of 73.87 million tonnes, followed by Paradip Port (55.13 million tonnes), JNPT (48.23 million tonnes), Mumbai Port (46.39 million tonnes), Vishakhapatnam (42.24 million tonnes), Chennai Port (37.41 million tonnes), Chidambaranar (27.80 million tonnes), NMPT (25.29 million tonnes), HDC (24.90 million tonnes), Kamarajar (22.96 million tonnes), Cochin Port (16.49 million tonnes), Murmugao (13.89 million tonnes) and KDS (12.39 million tonnes) during the first three quarters of 2015-16.

At a broad commodity level, coal, fertilizer/FRM, other cargo, POL and container posted traffic growth rates of 9.4 per cent, 5.8 per cent 4.7 per cent, 2.9 per cent and 1.5 per cent, respectively, during the first three quarters of 2015-16. Traffic in Iron ore showed negative growth of 37.9 per cent during the period.