Seaborne traffic at the country’s 13 major ports progressed further on the recovery path in July. Thus, the total traffic at the ports was up by 4.9 per cent during the month, improving from 2.7 per cent increase in June, 0.6 per cent in May, and 6.2 per cent y-o-y decline in April.
The improved pace in July, relative to June, was mainly in Haldia, Paradip, Ennore, New Mangalore, and V.O. Chidambaranar (earlier Tuticorin) even as volume at Kandla declined annually during the month, against increases in the previous three months and the same at Visakhapatnam went into deeper red.
Among cargoes, thermal coal shot up 62 per cent in July, against 78 per cent in June and 29 per cent during April-May. Coking coal loading increased 6 per cent, over 19 per cent in June and 13 per cent during April-May. Other general industrial cargo was up by 10 per cent, following 11 per cent decline in June. Fertiliser stagnated at year-ago level in July, iron ore declined 7 per cent, and POL and container around 4 per cent each.
Taking April-July period, the traffic volume at the 13 major ports increased by 0.5 per cent to 184 million tonnes, against 1 per cent decline till June and 5 per cent drop in the corresponding four months of fiscal 2013. Seven ports handled less freight whereas six enjoyed enhanced volumes. Mormugao suffered 68 per cent drop in freight as it failed to have iron ore loading, against 7.3 million tonnes it had during the corresponding four months last year.
|
SEABORNE CARGO AT MAJOR PORTS DURING APRIL-JULY 2013
|
||
|
|
000 Tonnes
|
% Increase
|
| Kolkata Dock System |
4,092
|
8.11
|
| Haldia Dock Complex |
10,104
|
3.57
|
| Total: Kolkata |
14,196
|
4.84
|
| Paradip |
23,130
|
42.83
|
| Visakhapatnam |
19,720
|
-4.36
|
| Ennore |
8,366
|
54.30
|
| Chennai |
17,468
|
-4.97
|
| V.O. Chidambaranar (earlier Tuticorin) |
9,173
|
-3.81
|
| Cochin |
6,912
|
-0.13
|
| New Mangalore |
12,886
|
14.78
|
| Mormugao |
3,412
|
-67.92
|
| Mumbai |
17,740
|
-10.10
|
| JNPT |
20,750
|
-6.63
|
| Kandla |
30,775
|
5.28
|
| Total |
184,528
|
0.47
|
| Classification by cargo | ||
| POL |
62229
|
2.81
|
| Iron Ore |
7147
|
-53.19
|
| Finished Fertiliser |
2072
|
13.66
|
| Raw Fertiliser |
2305
|
12.55
|
| Thermal Coal |
25541
|
48.06
|
| Coking Coal |
11252
|
12.99
|
| Containers |
38582
|
-6.07
|
| Other Cargo |
35400
|
-0.88
|
Business at Mumbai Port was 10 per cent less due to reduced other general industrial cargo and POL. Loading at JNPT was 6.6 per cent less due to less container tonnage and that at Visakhapatnam (due to lower POL and iron ore) and Chennai (due to reduced other general industrial cargo and containers) was 4-5 per cent less. Aggregate business volume at Paradip shot up 43 per cent due to wide ranging improvement in cargoes. Business volume at Ennore shot up 54 per cent due to sharply improved thermal coal loading.
POL volume increased 2.8 per cent, thermal/coking coal 35 per cent and fertiliser 13 per cent during April-July. Kandla, Paradip and New Mangalore accounted for bulk of the increase in POL. Iron ore loading dropped 53 per cent, containers 6 per cent and general industrial cargo one per cent during the first four months of the current fiscal.
