Indian major ports achieve increase in cargo traffic

Rising demand from various sectors, including coal, petroleum, oil and lubricant,and containers, was the main driver of the traffic growth, according to the Indian Ports Association (IPA).

Moreover, coking coal volumes handled by the 12 ports rose by 30.62% to 5.51 million tonnes (MT) during the first month, while thermal and steam coal increased 12.65% to 10.91 MT.

What is more, container volumes also rose 5.74% to 12.54 MT in terms of tonnage handled. Overall, POL handling during April increased 11% to 18.99 MT, in comparison to the previous fiscal year.

Regarding specific ports, Deendayal Port handled the highest traffic volume at 11.30 MT in April, with Paradip Port (9.55 MT), JNPT (5.99), Visakhapatnam (5.69) and Mumbai Port (5 MT) following. Kolkata Port, including Haldia, handled 4.95 MT of cargo, while Chennai port handled 3.94 MT of cargo.

India's 12 major ports had recorded 2.90 per cent growth in cargo handling to 699.04 million tonnes (MT) in 2018-19.

The growth at these port was mainly because of higher handling of coal, fertilisers and containers.