Four major ports witness growth in container traffic.

VISAKHAPATNAM: Container traffic at the Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) has registered the maximum growth of 11% among 12 major ports during the April-December 2013-14 period as compared to the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. The container terminal, which is run by the Visakha Container Terminal Private Limited (VCTPL), has handled around 3.7 million tonnes of cargo during the last nine months as compared to the 3.3 million tonnes during the corresponding period of the last fiscal.

The growth rate augurs well for the industry at a time when the overall container traffic at major ports has declined by nearly 4.4%, said sources.VPT and VO Chidambarnar Port are the only two on the east coast that registered a positive growth during the current fiscal while three other major ports — Kolkata, Paradip and Chennai — registered a decline. While VO Chidambarnar grew at 9.8%, New Mangalore Port and Cochin Port grew at 6.2% and 2.4% respectively.

Chennai Port, which handles nearly 25% of the container traffic among all major ports and more than 50% on the east coast, registered a decline of 4.4% in the last nine months compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.

Meanwhile, the major ports with decline in container traffic are JNPT (-6.02%), Chennai (-4.4), Kolkata (-6.7%), Kandla (-66.7%), Mumbai (-54.4%), Mormugao (-8.2%) and Paradip (-50.3%)"Chennai Port started containerisation quite early. So they have maximised their potential. However, in Vizag it's still growing. Even small exporters and importers are making use of the container terminal. Also, VCTPL has facility for full container cargo (which is around 30 tonnes) and less than container cargo because of which exporters with cargo less than one container are raking in benefits," said an industry source.

"More importantly, there is a large volume of cargo waiting to be containerised. For example, while a part of timber cargo is already containerised, containerisation of granite cargo is yet to take place," said the source."Many of the industries are yet to start exports from the region. Once this happens, we can expect further growth in this segment," said another VCTPL source."The decline in container traffic overall across ports has to do more with the effect of global slowdown than purely with domestic economic conditions. Globally manufacturers as well as consumers have become conscious of what is being produced and bought across markets. Thus there has been a gradual slowdown in the number of units traded," said founder and executive chairman of Allcargo Logistics Shashi Kiran Shetty.

"This has hugely impacted the container movement to and from India. India being a developing economy its container trade is more skewed towards imports than exports. Thus the visible decline in numbers," said Shetty."We need to understand that initially the container gateway to India was only driven from these main ports (JNPT, Chennai) and then it was channeled to destinations in the hinterland. Over the years, these hinterland destinations themselves have created ports (especially in the south) connecting their major manufacturing or economic activity hubs.

Thus instead of coming via JNPT or Chennai, a small portion of traffic destined to southern market of India, utilizes these ports for obvious time efficiency aspects," he said.

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com