Container traffic at Major Ports up 3% in April

Container volumes at Major State-owned port complexes in India expanded 3.9% year-over-year in April, the first month of fiscal year 2015-16, continuing a healthy growth trend seen during the past year.

Total container throughput at India’s 12 Major Ports reached 660,000 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEU), up from 635,000 TEU in the corresponding month last year. Containerized cargo tonnage was up 5.3%, at 10.2 million tonnes (mt), the data showed.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), or Nhava Sheva, handled 369,000 TEU, up from 364,000 TEU. The three container terminals in Nhava Sheva together account for nearly 60% of total containerized cargo moving via India’s12 major ports and roughly 40% of the nation’s overall containerized ocean trade.

Boosted by the highest-ever annual volume of 4.47 million TEU in 2014-15 amid ongoing congestion issues, the port trust has set a throughput target of 5 million TEU for the current fiscal year, which runs from April 2015 through March 2016.

Chennai Port, the country’s second-largest publicly owned container handler, saw volume increase 17% to 139,000 TEU from 119,000 TEU.

Volume at Kolkata Port, which includes Haldia Dock, totaled 44,000 TEU, down from 45,000 TEU. Tuticorin Port, now renamed V.O. Chidambaranar, handled 48,000 TEU, up from 43,000 TEU. Vallarpadam Container Transshipment Terminal, a DP World facility in Cochin Port, increased throughput to 31,000 TEU from 28,000 TEU.

Statistics show total cargo tonnage at Major Ports in April rose about 1% year-over-year to 48 mt. Of the top cargo complexes, Kandla led the way with tonnage of 6.7 mt; followed by Paradip, at 6 mt; JNPT, at 5.6 mt; Mumbai, at 5 mt; Chennai, at 4.6 mt; Visakhapatnam, at 4 mt; and Kolkata, at 3.8 mt.