The first mainline container vessel of the current financial year — m.v. O.S. Sumsun of Delmas Line — with import cargo of raw cashew from East Africa called at New Mangalore Port on Saturday.
A New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) release said on Tuesday that the vessel, with 327 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of raw cashew containers from Port Mtwara in Tanzania, called at New Mangalore Port for distribution among various cashew processing units situated in and around Mangalore.
In its return voyage on April 24, the vessel loaded export cargo of teakwood, cashew kernels and jute bags, the release said.
The mainline vessel took nine days to transport containers from Port Mtwara to Mangalore. It takes around 21 days if the containers are shipped through Colombo, it said. The direct calling of mainline vessels at New Mangalore Port helps bring down transit time and handling costs, the release said. As the mainline vessel touches Singapore and Far Eastern countries in its return voyage, exporters can make use of this facility for moving their export cargo.
Quoting Mr P. Tamilvanan, Chairman of NMPT, the release said that mainline vessels directly calling at the port has helped boost the growth of container traffic at the port. The port handled 40,158 TEUs of containers during 2010-11 as against 31,456 TEUs in the previous fiscal.