Major Indian ports put together witnessed growth of 3.27% during the first seven months of the ongoing fiscal. Commodity-wise, the highest increase in cargo was of Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants at 34.07%, followed by container cargo with 20.01%.
According to the data released by Ministry of Shipping, the overall traffic growth at major ports increased in single digit. Between April to September 2017, the dozen major ports of India together handled 383 Million Tonnes (MT) of cargo as against 371 MT handled during the corresponding period last year.
Out of the dozen major ports, 8 major ports of Kolkata, Paradip, Chennai, Cochin, New Mangalore, Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru Port and Kandla registered positive growth in traffic between April to October.
When it comes to cargo handled at these dozen Indian ports, the highest growth was witnessed at Cochin Port followed by Kolkata, New Mangalore and Paradip.
Cochin Port registered growth of 17.66% in cargo handled, while Kolkata, New Mangalore and Paradip port’s growth was around 12%.
Double digit rise in Cochin Port's cargo is mainly due to Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants cargo handled that went up by 24.56% and containers handling by 11.12%. Other cargo handled by Cochin Port dipped, thereby the overall cargo growth at the port being 17.66%.
"In Kolkata Port, overall growth was positive i.e. 12.39%. Kolkata Dock System registered traffic growth of 3.80%. Haldia Dock Complex registered positive growth of 16.66%," read Ministry of Shipping’s data.
During the April-September period, Kandla Port handled the highest volume of traffic at 63.13 MT, followed by Paradip Port with 55.78 mt, JNPT handling 37.90 MT, Mumbai Port with 36.72 MT and Visakhapatnam Port with 35.74 MT. Together, these five major ports handled around 60% of major port traffic.
