VO Chidambaranar Port handles 36.58 million tonnes cargo during FY2017-18

April 19, 2018: During the financial year 2017-18, VO Chidambaranar Port Trust handled cargo traffic of 36.58 million tonnes against the previous year's achievement of 38.46 million tonnes, registering a decrease of 4.89 percent. The imports have accounted for 26.17 million tonnes (-6.52 percent) and exports accounted for 10.41 million tonnes (-0.51 percent).

The Port has registered a record throughput of 6,97,631 TEUs of containers in the year 2017-18 clocking a growth of 8.65 percent over previous year's container traffic of 6,42,103 TEUs.

When compared to the financial year 2016-17, cargo that have shown considerable increase are Containerised cargo 8.65 percent (55,528 TEUs), Lime stone 22.57 percent (250 thousand tonnes), Palm oil 65.23 percent (140 thousand tonnes), Timber logs 45.90 percent (132 thousand tonnes) and Clinkers 134.68 percent (105 thousand tonnes).

The Port has also seen a phenomenal growth of 33.11 percent in coastal cargo traffic during the financial year 2017-18 by handling 99.72 lakh tonnes over 74.92 lakh tonnes during the financial year 2016-17.

The port has seen an improvised performance in terms of operational performance. The average pre-berthing time has decreased considerably from 1.98 days during the FY 2016-17 to 1.27 days during the year 2017-18. Average turn around of ships have also come down from 4.40 days during the FY 2016-17 to 2.69 days during the year 2017-18.

Average Ship berthday output has also increased from 10,456 tonnes during the FY 2016-17 to 11,961 tonnes during the year 2017-18. In 2017-18, there were 1482 ship calls in the port, down by 10.83 percent from the 1662 ship calls during the financial year 2016-17. The fewer vessel calls illustrate that much of the cargo coming into the port is arriving in larger ships.

VO Chidambaranar Port’s operating income amounted to Rs 622.75 crores during 2017-18 as against Rs 597.93 crores the previous year and the operating surplus Rs 372.56 crores as against Rs 350.02 crores in 2016-17. The net surplus after tax was Rs 117.88 crores as against Rs 117.72 crores. The operating ratio of 40.17 percent is one the best among the Indian Major Ports.

During the financial year 2017-18, the port has awarded the project for dredging in-front of coastal berth at a cost of Rs 96.33 crores and the project was completed on 04.04.2018. The port has also completed construction of north cargo berth-II for handling bulk cargoes (Capacity: 7 MTPA), conversion of 8th berth as container terminal on BOT Basis (Capacity: 7.2 MTPA), construction of dedicated berth for handling coastal cargo (Capacity: 1 MTPA), deployment of additional harbour mobile cranes at III & IV berth under PPP mode (Capacity: 4.36 MTPA), construction and maintenance of truck parking terminal at the port land, Road Connectivity to Hare island and procurement of two Mooring Launches totalling 7 key projects at a cost of Rs. 744.93 cores. The resultant capacity addition will be 19.56 MT per annum.

Some of major projects that are in progress are Up-gradation of CJ - I & II at a cost of Rs.97.76 crores, (Capacity addition: 18 MTPA), development of shallow draught berth for handling construction materials through PPP mode at a cost of Rs 65.37 crores, (Capacity: 2 MTPA) and Construction of NCB III on EPC mode at a cost of Rs 36.52 crores, (Capacity: 10.22 MTPA).