Cargo volume at Indian ports increases 3%

Throughput at major ports in India grew by around three per cent in the April-January period, amid indications that the slowdown in the country's export trade is affecting traffic growth.

The country's 12 gateway ports handled 436.7 million tonnes of cargo, compared to 424.3 million tonnes in the same period the previous year, according to data released by the Indian Ports Association. Overall tonnage, however, fell short of the Shipping Ministry's target of 476.3 million tonnes set for the 10-month period.

Kandla topped cargo volume at 61.5 million tonnes, followed by Visakhapatnam, 53 million tonnes; Nehru, 48 million tonnes; Chennai, 46 million tonnes; Kolkata, 45 million tonnes, and Mumbai, 42.5 million tonnes. Consolidated container traffic increased two per cent to 5.6 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) from 5.5 million TEUs.

Nehru, India's busiest box gateway, handled 3.36 million TEUs compared to 3.33 million TEUs, while volume at Mumbai fell to 83,975 TEUs from 93,621 TEUs.

Chennai, the second-largest container hub, handled 974,000 TEUs, up from 923,000 TEUs.

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