Major Ports register positive growth of 4.77 percent during 2017-18

April 9, 2018: The major ports in India have recorded a growth of 4.77 percent and together handled 679.35 million tonnes of cargo during the period April 2017 to March 2018 as against 648.39 million tonneshandled during the corresponding period of previous year.

Nine Ports - Kolkata (including Haldia), Visakhapatnam, Paradip, Kamarajar, Chennai, Cochin, New Mangalore, JNPT and Deendayal also registered positive growth in traffic.

Cargo traffic handled at major ports:
Cochin Port registered the highest growth of 16.52 percent, followed by Paradip 14.68 percent, Kolkata (incl. Haldia) 13.61 percent, JNPT 6.2 percent and New Mangalore 5.28 percent.

The growth at Cochin Port was mainly due to increase in traffic of fin. fertilizer (105.88 percent), POL (20.62 percent) and containers (12.46 percent).

In Kolkata Port, overall growth was 13.61 percent. Kolkata Dock System (KDS) registered traffic growth of 3.45 percent. Whereas Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) registered positive growth of 18.61 percent which is highest among all the major ports.

Deendayal (Kandla) Port handled the highest volume of traffic 110.10 million tonnes (16.21 percent share), followed by Paradip with 102.01 million tonnes (15.02 percent share), JNPT with 66.00 million tonnes (9.72 percent share), Visakhapatnam with 63.54 million tonnes (9.35 percent share) and Mumbai with 62.83 million tonnes (9.25 percent share). Together, these five ports handled around 60 percent of major port traffic.

Commodity-wise percentage share of POL was maximum at 31.55 percent, followed by container 19.67 percent, thermal steam coal 14.02 percent, other misc. cargo 13.62 percent, coking other coal 7.45 percent, iron ore pellets 7.15 percent, other liquid 4.33 percent, finished fertilizer 1.11 percent and frm 1.11 percent.