Coal handling loss at Chennai port

Sunday, 22 Jan 2012

Chennai port's loss was Ennore port's gain with coal handling moving away from Chennai to Ennore in the last nine months. This was the most significant trend observed in cargo handling among the country's major ports in the first nine months of the current financial year a period which witnessed a flat growth rate in cargo traffic when compared to previous year.

The country's major ports managed a 0.38% increase in cargo handling to 418 million tonne from April to December 2011 when compared to 416 million tonne in the same period last year.

A Chennai Port Trust official said that a 19.44% drop in iron ore handling was one of the main reasons for the flat growth. The ban on exports of iron ore by the Karnataka Government continues to bother ports such as Chennai.

The shift in coal to Ennore also coincides with the order of the Madras High Court to shift coal to Ennore from Chennai last year.

The Ennore port handled an additional 2.4 million tonne of thermal coal in the first nine months when compared with the same period last year. Similarly, the port handled 251,000 tonne of coking coal while it was nil in the previous year.

According to the latest data by the Indian Ports Association, on the contrary, the Chennai port lost nearly 400,000 tonne of thermal coal in the first nine months and nearly 140,000 tonne of coking coal.

Due to the 38% increase in handling of thermal coal, the Ennore port recorded the highest growth rate among all the ports of 42.69%.

On the other hand, the Chennai port suffered 8.35% decline in cargo handling due to drop in poor coal handling in the period under review.

(Sourced from BL)