Container throughput at major ports in India in April through December increased 4 percent year-over-year, but the ports are unlikely to meet the government’s growth target for the fiscal year.

Total volume for the first three quarters of fiscal 2011-12 was roughly 5.84 million 20-foot equivalent units, up from 5.62 million TEUs a year earlier, the Indian Ports Association said Tuesday. The tonnage of container traffic rose nearly 8 percent to 90 million metric tons.

The IPA said total cargo tonnage at the 13 state-owned ports from April through December was flat with the year-ago period at 418.2 million tons.

Based on current growth trends, major ports are unlikely to reach the overall throughput target of 600 million tons set by the Shipping Ministry for fiscal 2011-12 ending March 31.

The volume of containers handled by Jawaharlal Nehru (Nhava Sheva), the country’s largest container port, grew about 2 percent to 3.24 million TEUs. Traffic at Chennai increased 5 percent to 1.17 million TEUs.

Kolkata’s box throughput rose 7.5 percent to 415,000 TEUs, and Tuticorin saw traffic rise 4.6 percent to 357,000 TEUs. Volume at Cochin increased 5.3 percent to 258,000 TEUs, while throughput at Mumbai fell 19.6 percent to 45,000 TEUs.  year earlier.

Kandla emerged as the top cargo handler with throughput of 60.9 million tons, followed by Visakhatpatnam, at 52.64 million tons; Nehru, at 49.5 million tons; and Chennai, at 42 million tons.

For fiscal 2010-11, which ended March 31, 2011, traffic through India's major ports rose 1.5 percent to 570 million tons. Container traffic increased 10 percent to 7.54 million TEUs in the same period.

(Source:JOC)