India’s Port Tonnage Slips

Consolidated throughput at major ports in India registered a marginal decline in April, the first month of fiscal 2009-10, according to the latest traffic figures released by the Indian Ports Association.

Total cargo volume at the country's 12 gateway ports dropped to 45 million tons, from 46 million tons in the same month the previous fiscal year.

Mormugao emerged as the largest cargo hub with throughput of 5.5 million tons, followed by Kandla, 5.4 million tons; Visakhapatnam, 5.1 million tons; Paradip, 5 million tons; Jawaharlal Nehru, 4.9 million tons; Chennai, 4.7 million tons, and Mumbai, 4 million tons.

Details about containerized cargo handled during the month were not immediately available.

The slowdown in traffic comes at a time when the government plans to spend about $11 billion to implement various capacity expansion projects, under a five-year National Maritime Development Program, through public-private partnership.

In fiscal 2008-09 ended March 31, total traffic grew by a mere 2 percent to 530 million tons from 519 million tons in 2007-08. Container volume totaled 6.85 million TEUs, up from 6.71 million TEUs.