Shailaja A. Lakshmi
The major ports in India have recorded a growth of 3.91% and together handled 174.02 Million Tonnes of cargo during the period April to June, 2018 as against 167.48 Million Tonnes handled during the corresponding period of previous year.
For the period from April- June 2018, nine ports - Kolkata including Haldia, Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Kamarajar, Chennai, Cochin, New Mangalore, JNPT and Deendayal (Kandla) Port have registered positive growth in traffic.
The highest growth was registered by Kamarajar Port (11.93%), followed by Kolkata including Haldia (10.21%), Paradip (9%), Cochin 7.85%) and Visakhapatnam (7.24%).
Kamarajar Port growth was mainly due to increase in Other Liquids by 29.63%, Other Misc. Cargo by 15.06%, POL by 7.51% and Thermal & Steam Coal by 4.93%.
In Kolkata Port, overall growth was 10.21%. Kolkata Dock System (KDS) registered traffic growth of 2.82%. Whereas Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) registered impressive growth of 13.49% which is highest among all the Major Ports.
During the period April to June 2018, Deendayal (Kandla) Port handled the highest volume of traffic i.e. 29.13 Million tonnes (16.74% share), followed by Paradip with 26.64 Million Tonnes (15.31% share), JNPT with 17.37 Million Tonnes (9.98% share), Visakhapatnam with 16.20 Million Tonnes (9.31% share) and Kolkata including Haldia with 15.13 Million Tonnes (8.69%). Together, these five ports handled around 60% of Major Port Traffic.
Commodity-wise percentage share of POL was maximum i.e. 30.36%, followed by Container (20.36%), Thermal & Steam Coal (16.26%), Other Misc. Cargo (12.41%), Coking & Other Coal (7.49%), Iron Ore & Pellets (6.47%), Other Liquid (4.06%), Finished Fertilizer (1.42%) and FRM (0.9%).