Government update on cargo handling at major ports in India

Thursday, 15 Dec 2011

A reduction in iron ore traffic driven by a mix of ban on iron ore exports and slower demand from China continued to pull down the total load handled at major ports in November.

During the month, the two key commodity groups that registered a decline in traffic handled at major ports were iron ore and coking coal. Major ports handled 45.67 million tonnes cargo, a 0.51% drop against the same period last year.

The reduction in iron ore export cargo of 2.6 million tonnes was more than the increased handling of finished fertiliser, container traffic and thermal coal during the month. These were the three commodity segments that got the maximum incremental traffic of 2.18 million tonnes to the ports during the period.

Cargo handling by major ports

	Nov 11	Change %(YoY)
POL	14.72	1.87
Iron ore	4.79	-35.4
Fertliser finished	2.01	69.52
Fertilizer raw	0.77	12.4
Coal thermal	3.89	14.88
Coal coking	2.03	-12.5
Container tonnage	10.01	9.3
Other cargo	7.41	1.9
Total	4.56	-0.5

(In million tonne)

On a cumulative basis, the major ports handled 370.68 million tonnes between April to November, registering a 1.33% growth. This was on the back of lower handling of iron ore, fertilizer and coking coal.

The slower growth at major ports is also due to higher cargo handled by non major ports administered by the state governments. The non major ports account for about 35% of total traffic.

(Sourced from BL)