Top 12 Indian Ports see Reduction in Volumes for 11 Months straight

24/Mar

Cargo Traffic in India’s top 12 ports has considerably reduced for the 11th straight month since April’20, according to ports’ apex body IPA. In February’21, cargo traffic has dropped by 6.61 per cent to 600.62 million tonnes (MT) as compared to 643.10 MT which was recorded for the same period last year.

All ports controlled by central govt, showed negative growth except for Paradip and Mormugao — which recorded 0.27 per cent and 30.93 per cent increase in cargo handling.
Cochin and Chennai ports suffered a sharp fall of about 10%. Cargo volumes at Kamrajar Port (Ennore) showed 23.29% decline during April’20-February’21. JNPT saw a decline of 8.06%, while Deendayal Port Trust and Kolkata ports logged an over 6% drop. Cargo handling at New Mangalore and Visakhapatnam slipped by 5.30% and 4.87%, respectively.

The effects of Covid-19 continue to haunt several other sectors & commodities. Sharp declines were witnessed in the handling of containers, coal, and POL (petroleum, oil and lubricant), among other commodities. Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister ML Mandaviya had told Parliament earlier that there was a considerable decline in the total traffic, containers traffic and other than containers traffic in March, April, May, June, July and August 2020, as compared to the corresponding months in 2019.