The Hindu Business Line : Paradip port traffic volume crosses 30-million tonne mark

PARADIP port's traffic volume has crossed the 30-million tonne mark. In 2004-05, the port handled a total of 30.10 million tonnes (mt), exceeding the target (set for the year at 27.48 mt) by 9.52 per cent and the last year's (2003-04) figure of 25.31 mt by 18.94 per cent.

Mr Subrat Tripathy, the acting Chairman of Paradip Port Trust, while talking to Business Line here on Friday attributed the improved performance to several factors such as careful logistics planning, support from the port users and solid effort put up by all sections of employees of the port.

The growth of iron ore traffic (for exports) had been spectacular, Mr Tripathy said. During the year under review, the iron ore throughput at 9.05 mt (six mt in 2003-04), registered a growth of more than 52 per cent. "Despite no additional investment in mechanised ore handling plant, the plant handled 5.4 mt during the year against 4.19 mt in the previous year," he said explaining that this had been possible through good house-keeping.

Coking coal is another commodity that registered impressive growth. At a throughput of 3.26 mt (2.38 mt), the growth was nearly 46 per cent. "The efficiency achieved in the operation of the berth led to the jump in throughput," he said.

The partial revival of the Oswal fertiliser plant and steady growth in the performance of the Paradeep Phosphates Ltd, the two major users of the port, contributed to the significant jump in the throughput of fertiliser raw materials (dry) at 2.6 mt (1.8 mt).

He, however, conceded that the FRM (dry) traffic was not very steady as the production of the Oswal factory fluctuated from time to time due to a variety of factors.

The major cause of concern to the port, as the acting Chairman pointed out, had been the declining trend in the thermal coal traffic, the single largest item in the port's cargo portfolio. In 2003-04, with a throughput of 11 mt, thermal coal accounted for 40 per cent of the total traffic of the port. In 2004-05, there was a negative growth at 10.94 mt of throughput and the share dropped to around 30 per cent or so.

"While the facilities at the port are geared to handle more than 20 mt, we are being forced to handle a much lower volume due to non-availability of coal for coastal shipments to Ennore port to meet the requirement of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board," he observed.

The petroleum products traffic at 8.39 lakh tonnes against 1.35 mt last year too posted a negative growth. "We're hopeful that the trend will be reversed soon," he said.

Another area where the port's performance left much to be desired was the container traffic. During the year under review, the throughput was 2,282 TEUs (4,518 TEUs), presumably because of the total dependence on one customer who too was afflicted with its own problems and therefore could not generate the promised volume.

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