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Traffic rises 7% at India's major ports

Together, they handled 647.63 mn tonne cargo in FY17 as compared to 606.47 mn tonne in previous fiscal

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Except Kamarajar Port (formerly Ennore Port) and Jawaharlal Nehru Port near Mumbai, all other 10 major ports registered a growth in traffic during 2016-17.

Despite increase in traffic, three ports of Kolkata, Mumbai and Cochin have reported negative financial performance. However, their losses have reduced from the year-ago period.

As per the annual data compiled and compared by the Indian Ports Association (IPA) for 2016-17 vis-a-vis 2015-16, there has been consolidated growth in traffic by the 12 major ports during the year by 6.79% as they together handled 647.63 million tonne cargo. Last year, the growth was at 4.32% with 606.47 million tonne.

Talking to DNA Money about the dip in traffic, M A Bhaskarachar, chairman-cum-managing director of Kamarajar port said, “Tamil Nadu government did not import as much coal for power plants as they have been doing previously. They drew more power from renewable sources like wind and solar. Apart from this, they got indigenous coal by rail. As a result, around 2 million tonne of coal imports reduced, affecting the overall traffic.” During 2016-17, Kamarajar Port witnessed 30.02 million tonne of traffic as compared to 32.20 million tonne in 2015-16.

JN Port’s chairman Anil Diggikar explained that their port is a container port, which means they handle empty containers as well, but the quantification done in the chart is as per million tonne. “We handled more containers than the previous years, which included empty ones,” said Diggikar.

As per IPA’s data, JN Port had 3.13% lesser traffic at 62.02 million tonne. However, the port recorded highest ever handling of 4.50 million Twenty-foot Equivalents (TEUs) during 2016-17.

While ports of Mormugao, Paradip and Cochin registered maximum growth in traffic at 59.70%, 16.45% and 13.16% respectively, Kandla in Gujarat handled maximum cargo followed by Paradip and Mumbai. Last fiscal, Kandla handled 105.44 million tonne, which is 5.39% more than the previous year. Paradip and Mumbai ports handled 88.95 and 63.05 million tonne respectively.

The net revenue surplus of all the 12 major ports put together stood at Rs 2,819.74 crore, which is 42.61% more than the previous year.

Kandla Port also posted its highest ever net revenue surplus of Rs 651 crore during 2016-17, an increase of 54.40% over the last year profit of Rs 422 crore. Kandla Port’s chairman Ravi Parmar was unavailable for comment.

Karmajar port witnessed highest increase in profits. Bhaskarachar attributed 80% increase in profit to various factors like operational efficiency, better pricing strategy, modern handling systems, landlord port model, etc.

On the overall performance, a Ministry of Shipping statement read, “In respect of development of port infrastructure, 56 projects have been awarded with a capacity of 103.52 million tonne per annum (MTPA) against a target of 102 MTPA with an investment of Rs 9,490.51 crore during 2016-17. During 2016-17, total turn-around time came down to 3.44 days as against 3.64 days during last year. Likewise, average output per ship berth day has gone up to 14,583 tonne as against 13,748 tonne during last year.”

HOW THEY FARED

  • Ports of Mormugao, Paradip and Cochin registered maximum growth in traffic
     
  • The net revenue surplus of all the 12 major ports put together stood at Rs 2,819.74 crore
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