Mumbai: Container traffic at major ports in India fell 6% in the April-October period, the first seven months of fiscal 2009-10, despite a 3.6% increase in overall tonnage, writes Journal of Commerce.
The country's 12 major ports handled 3.9m teu compared with 4.1m teu during the same period the previous fiscal year, the Indian Ports Association said in a statement.
Volume at JNPT, the country's busiest container port, dropped 8% to 2.3m teu from 2.5m teu. Chennai, the second-largest box handler, moved 691,000teu, down 5% from 730,000teu. Traffic at Tuticorin decreased to 252,000teu from 270,000teu.
Consolidated cargo throughput at major ports for the seven-month period increased to 314.6m tons from 303.7m tons in the year-ago period, but fell short of the Shipping Ministry's target of 333m tons.
The IPA figures indicate that the growth came mainly from bulk cargo handling that surged 11.6% on a year-on-year basis.
The western Port of Kandla topped volume at 46m tons, followed by Visakhapatnam at 38.5m tons. [20/11/09]
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