JOC Staff | May 15, 2012 8:07AM EDT
Container traffic through India’s major ports fell 2.4 percent year-over-year in April, the first month of fiscal 2012-13, according to latest traffic figures released by the Indian Ports Association.
The IPA said the 13 state-owned gateway hubs handled 633,000 20-foot equivalent units compared with 649,000 TEUs in the year-ago month.
Traffic at Jawaharlal Nehru Port (Nhava Sheva), which accounts for almost 60 percent of India’s total container movements, declined to 365,000 TEUs from 369,000 TEUs.
Chennai Port, the second-largest box gateway, moved 126,000 TEUs, down 6 percent from 134,000 TEUs.
Kolkata handled 48,000 TEUs, up from 46,000 TEUs. Tuticorin’s volume dropped to 34,000 TEUs from 39,000 TEUs. Traffic at Cochin decreased to 19,000 TEUs from 24,000 TEUs.
The IPA said total cargo tonnage at major ports fell 6.3 percent in April to 46.4 million tons from 49.5 million tons a year earlier.
Kandla was the top cargo handler with throughput of 6.7 million tons, followed by Nehru, at 5.6 million tons; Mumbai, at 5.5 million tons; Visakhapatnam, at 4.9 million tons; and Chennai, at 4.3 million tons.
Meanwhile, Hapag-Lloyd said it is struggling to move containers via terminals in the Port of Nhava Sheva (Jawaharlal Nehru) because of port congestion and yard delays.
“As part of the contingency plans to clear the congestion, terminal operators are imposing container loading restrictions on some vessels from Nhava Sheva, if and as necessary. This will unfortunately impact the ability to accommodate all bookings requests for our services from Nhava Sheva,” the German carrier said.
