Major ports, owned by the central government, registered a 6 per centgrowth in cargo in September at 65 million metric tonnes (mmt), primarilydriven by crude oil cargo shipments and an increase in miscellaneous commodities.
The previous month saw a near g per cent increase in export-import(Exim) cargo and a 1.9 per cent fall in coastal cargo.
Crude Oil and miscellaneous (other) commodities, which cumulatively account for a third ofmajor port cargo, saw an increase ofg per cent and 41 per cent respectively.
On the other hand, ahead of the festival season, the last month also saw private ports - or non-major ports - reversing their slow growth so far this fiscal, seeing a cargo growth of 1o per cent.with a 12 per cent increase in Exim cargo.
For major ports, containers, which are a proxy for trade of finished goods, grew only by 3 percent in September as private ports took a large pie of festive shipments with a 26 per cent growth.
While crude oil volumes at non-major ports had been contracting throughout the financial year(FY25), September saw a sharp 20 per cent year-on-year rise in crude oil shipments, andexperts opine that these volumes will continue to rise as crude oil cargo at private ports hadbeen sluggish due to planned shutdowns in refneries of oil majors like BPCL Kochi, loCL and Nayara Energy took planned shutdowns in this fscal, which also impacted the petroleum product exports.
Major ports have so far in FY25 handled 414 million mmt of cargo, which is a 5 per cent increasecompared to the last year, At this pace, they outpace their private peers growing at 4 per cent.During the same period last year, major ports were on a slow growth trajectory with a 2.4 percent growth in cargo, and over the last two years, the first half of the financial year has beenfraught with international shipping challenges such as the Russia-Ukraine war, lsraeli attacks across West Asia and the prominent emergence of lran in the lsrael-Palestine confict.
In terms of port performance, traffic at Deendayal Port Authority (Kandla Port) grew by 28 percent in September, Part of it is due to a low-base effect, as the port struggled with cargo inFY24 and lost its place as the biggest cargo-handling major Port to Odisha's Paradip Port. So farin FY25. Kandla Port's cargo handling has grown by 13 per cent.
Coastal cargo accounts for nearly a fourth of the total cargo volumes at major ports and almosta fifth at non-major ports. While the first half of the FY24 had seen a 2o per cent increase incoastal cargo at non-major ports, central government-owned ports had seen negligible growth.
In FY25. coastal cargo at major ports has grown by 4 per cent to g3 mmt, while it has decreasedby 2 per cent to 65 mmt at non-major ports.
According to experts, the growth of coastal cargo at major ports can be majorly attributed tothe coal evacuation from Paradip Port which handles close to 31 per cent of the coastal cargoamonast all with other ports like Chennai, Kamarajar port and even JNPA witnessing healthy growth, although the share in overall volumes remains low.
The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy expects cargo movement at major ports to slowdown to 3.1 per cent in the current fiscal year.
"A rise in traffic of major commodities such as petroleum, oil & lubricants (POL) and containerised cargo will push the overall growth upwards while a fall in traffic of coal and ironore wil restrict overall growth in 2024-25. Together, POL, coal, containerised cargo and iron oreaccount for over 77 per cent of the total cargo trafic," it said earlier this month.
Source:Business Standard
https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/india-major-port-cargo-rises-6-in-september-at-65-million-metric-tonnes/
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