The Hindu Business Line : Mainline container vessel calls at New Mangalore Port

The third mainline container vessel during the current calendar year called at New Mangalore Port, boosting the growth of container traffic at the port.

On Wednesday, m.v. Sea Navigator, which called at the port with 584 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of raw cashew, sailed out on Friday with export cargo to West Asia and East African countries.

Mr N.K. Rai, Branch Manager of CMA CGM Global (India) Pvt Ltd, Mangalore, told Business Line that CMA CGM’s mainline container vessel — m.v. Sea Navigator — called at New Mangalore Port to discharge mainly raw cashews loaded from Colombo for Mangalore discharge.

It also loaded coffee, cashew kernels, plywood and roof tile shipments in containers directly on this vessel for West Asian ports.

PRODUCTIVITY

Mr M.A. Bhaskarachar, Deputy Chairman, New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT), said that the port witnessed a better productivity with this call. The port handled 958 TEUs at the rate of 20 TEUs an hour and 480 TEUs a day.

Congratulating cargo handling workers, staff and officers for achieving this performance, he said that New Mangalore Port is now becoming important destination for container movement with calling of regular feeder and mainline vessels.

During the current financial year, the port handled 7,225 TEUs of container cargo against 3,953 TEUs of containers in the corresponding period of the previous year, recording a growth of 82.77 per cent.

Mr Rai said that export cargoes were accepted for Jebel Ali and Khor Faffan in the UAE, Mombassa in Kenya, Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania, Nacala in Mozambique and Mahajanga in Madagascar directly from the New Mangalore Port.

It may be mentioned here that the first mainline container vessel — m.v. Kota Handal — of PIL (Pacific International Line) of Singapore called at the port in January. This was followed by the second mainline container vessel — CMA CGM Okapi — in May.

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