The Hindu Business Line : What the major ports moved, and how much

Chennai was among the ports that improved its share of freight traffic in 2004-05, contributing to a total cargo throughput growth of over 11 per cent in all the major ports.

THE COUNTRY'S major ports together posted 11.3 per cent growth on a total cargo throughput of 383.77 million tonnes (mt) in 2004-05 compared to 9.9 per cent growth at 344.7 mt in 2003-04.

The Visakhapatnam port was the only facility to cross the 50-mt mark in 2004-05, though with a low growth of 5.05 per cent. The port's share in the total traffic handled by all major ports however declined to 13.07 per cent during the year from 13.84 per cent in 2003-04. In fact, the declining trend has been continuing over the past few years, from 15.42 per cent in 2001-02 and 14.67 per cent in 2002-03.

Only two ports that raised steadily their shares in the past few years were Kolkata (which also includes Haldia) — from 10.5 per cent in 2001-02 to 11.42 per cent in 2002-03, 11.97 per cent in 2003-04 and 12.03 per cent in 2004-05 — and New Mangalore — from 6.09 per cent in 2001-02 to 6.84 per cent in 2002-03, 7.74 per cent in 2003-04 and 8.83 per cent in 2004-05.

Chennai improved its share from 10.65 per cent in 2003-04 to 11.41 per cent in 2004-05 but between 2001-02 and 2002-03, it dropped from 12.56 per cent to 10.74 per cent.

Mumbai's share in 2004-05 was higher at 9.15 per cent than 8.7 per cent in 2003-04 and 8.55 per cent in 2002-03 but lower than 9.19 per cent in 2001-02.

The New Mangalore port has yet another distinction. It posted the highest growth in traffic among all major ports in 2004-05. At a throughput level of 33.89 mt (26.67 mt), the port posted more than 27 per cent growth, followed by Chennai 19.33 per cent growth at 43.80 mt (36.71 mt); Paradip 18.94 per cent at 30.10 mt (25.31 mt); Mumbai 17.10 per cent at 35.12 mt (29.99 mt); Tuticorin 15.59 per cent at 15.81 mt ( 13.68 mt); and Kolkata (including Haldia) 11.87 per cent at 46.15 mt (41.26 mt).

All other ports registered single-digit growth and the lowest was Kandla 0.04 per cent, at 41.54 mt (41.52 mt). Ennore posted 2.19 per cent growth at 9.48 mt (9.27 mt); Kochi 3.86 per cent at 14.09 mt (13.57 mt); JNPT 5.64 per cent at 32.94 mt (31.19 mt) and Mormugao 9.99 per cent at 30.66 mt (27.87 mt).

In terms of volume handled, Kolkata occupied the second position in 2004-05 after Visakhapatnam while Chennai was ranked third and Kandla fourth. Interestingly, Kandla had occupied the second position for the three successive years from 2001-02.

Chennai was No 3 in 2001-02 and No 4 in 2002-03. Kolkata occupied the third position for two successive years, 2002-03 and 2003-04. Visakhapatnam remains No 1 since 2000-01.

Commodity-wise, coking coal (imports) posted the highest growth of 57.6 per cent on a total throughput of 24.38 mt (15.48 mt) in 2004-05, followed by finished fertilisers (imports) 33.56 per cent at 3.82 mt (2.86 mt); iron ore (exports) 29.36 per cent at 76.13 mt (58.85 mt).

In fact, the volume increase was maximum, 17.28 mt, in respect of iron ore exports.

Fertiliser raw materials imports at 5.81 mt (4.68 mt) posted 24.14 per cent growth; containers (in terms of TEUs) 12.46 per cent at 4.24 million TEUs (3.77 million TEUs); crude and petroleum products 3.64 per cent at 126.61 mt (122.16 mt). The throughput of thermal coal (for coastal shipment) at 33.26 mt (33.32 mt) registered a marginal drop.

Interestingly, six ports accounted for the bulk of iron ore exports, four on the east coast — Haldia, Paradip, Visakhapatnam and Chennai — and two on the west coast — New Mangalore and Mormugao. While in terms of volume handled, Mormugao topped the list with a throughput of 24.72 mt (22.94 mt) with a low growth of 7.78 per cent, on a higher base though.

The highest growth of 89 per cent in iron ore throughput was achieved by New Mangalore at 10.27 mt (5.41 mt) followed by Paradip 54.23 per cent at 9 mt (5.9 mt); Haldia 43.21 per cent at 5.4 mt (3.8 mt); Visakhapatnam 33.4 per cent at 16.52 mt (12.38 mt) and Chennai 14.28 per cent at 9.6 mt (8.4 mt).

At New Mangalore, Paradip and Haldia, substantial quantities of ore (including fines) were transported to the ports by road, suggesting that a much costlier fuel was burnt to transport a much cheaper mineral. In fact, the cost of transportation was higher than the cost of the mineral and yet the exporters made money from exports. Such was the international price.

In coking coal import, the highest growth in throughput, more than 450 per cent, was recorded by Chennai at 5.5 mt (0.99 mt), followed by Mormugao 73 per cent at 2.78 mt (1.6 mt); Paradip 50 per cent at 3.3 mt (2.2. mt); Visakhapatnam 18 per cent at 7.2 mt (6.1 mt), and Haldia 14 per cent at 5.1 mt (4.5 mt). It is only two years or so that Mormugao started handling coking coal imports to meet the requirement of the steel plants that have come up in its hinterland.

The Visakhapatnam port accounted for the bulk of the finished fertiliser imports, of 1.37 mt (8.4 lakh tonnes), followed by Kandla 6.78 lakh tonnes (5.02 lakh tonnes); Chennai 5.49 lakh tonnes (4.12 lakh tonnes); New Mangalore 3.54 lakh tonnes (2.39 lakh tonnes) and Mormugao 1.72 lakh tonnes (1.24 lakh tonnes).

At two other ports, the volume of the traffic declined: Haldia 1.72 lakh tonnes (2.45 lakh tonnes) and Kochi 71,000 tonnes (1,01,000 tonnes). JNPT did not handle finished fertilisers in 2004-05 though it had the previous year (95,000 tonnes).

In containers, JNPT topped the list, though with a 10 per cent growth on a throughput of 2.37 million TEUs (2.14 million TEUs).

The highest growth of 20.86 per cent was posted by Tuticorin at 3.07 lakh TEUs (2.54 lakh TEUs) followed by Chennai 14.65 per cent at 6.18 lakh TEUs (5.4 lakh TEUs); Kolkata 11.2 per cent at 2.88 lakh TEUs (2.59 lakh TEUs); Mumbai 11.16 per cent at 2.19 lakh TEUs (1.97 lakh TEUs); Kochi 9.4 per cent at 1.86 lakh TEUs (1.7 lakh TEUs) and Kandla 5.8 per cent at 1.8 lakh TEUs (1.7 lakh TEUs).

The top three container handling ports are run by foreign companies — both, the Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal of Jawaharlal Nehru port and Chennai Container Terminal of Chennai port by P&O Ports, and the one at the Tuticorin port by the Port of Singapore Authority.

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