INDIA's 13 major ports have experienced container growth of four per cent in the first seven months of the fiscal 2011-2012 at 4.55 million TEU, and a total cargo tonnage increase of five million tons year on year.

    From April to October, ports registered containerised volume increase of eight per cent to 69 million tons from 64 million tons, according to the Indian Ports Association. In fiscal 2010-2011 it reported overall cargo tonnage growth of 1.5 per cent to 570 million tons from 561 million tons, and container increase of 10 per cent to 7.54 million TEU.

    The highest tonnage growth was seen at Kandla with 46.6 million tons, followed by Visakhapatnam, with 42.4 million tons while Mumbai's Jawaharlal Nehru Port increased to 38 million tons and Chennai hit 33.3 million tons.

    Chennai experienced three per cent of container growth during the seven month period increasing to 914,000 TEU from 891,000 TEU, while the largest container port Jawaharlal Nehru (Nhava Sheva) posted almost flat figures at 2.52 million TEU attributed to problems of congestion.

    Of the 13 publicly-owned major ports all had moderate growth with Kolkata up to 316,000 TEU from 307,000 TEU and Tuticorin up to 279,000 TEU from 268,000 TEU, Cochin increased to 208,000 from 197,000 TEU. Mumbai was the only port to drop volumes from 44,000 TEU to 36,000 TEU.

(Source:Shippinggazette)