Comments
Among the three major ports in Tamil Nadu, the VO Chidambaranar port in Tuticorin witnessed a positive cargo growth in 2019-2020 while both Chennai and the Kamarajar port in Ennore posted a decline.
Interestingly, Tamil Nadu is the only State with three major ports that collectively handled 112 million tonnes (mt) out of the total 704 mt handled by all the major ports together.
According to Indian Ports Association (IPA) data, the VOC port saw a 5 per cent increase in cargo volume for year ended March 31, 2020, to 36 mt as against 34 mt in the previous year.
However, in contrast, the Chennai port’s cargo volume dropped by 12 per cent — the highest among all major ports — to 47 mt (53 mt) and the Kamarajar port witnessed a drop by 7 per cent to 32 mt (34 mt).
TK Ramachandran, Chairman, VOC Port Trust, attributed the increase in cargo throughput to an overall positive performance in all cargo segments. Imports accounted for 26 mt and export was 10 mt.
The port registered its highest ever record throughput of 8.03 lakh Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in 2019-2020 clocking a growth of 9 per cent over previous year’s container traffic of seven lakh TEUs, he said.
Cargoes that showed considerable increase in 2019-2020 were industrial coal at 30 per cent (60.12 lakh tonnes); cattle feed 225 per cent (three lakh tonnes); sulphuric acid 80 per cent (4.63 lakh tonnes) and rock phosphate 33 per cent (5.44 lakh tonnes), says a release from VOC Port Trust.
The Chennai port saw decline in handling of major cargoes like liquids and containers. Shift of containers from the Chennai port to the Katupalli port (operated by the Adani Group) near Ennore was one of the major reasons for the decline in cargo volume last year, P Raveendran, Chairman, Chennai Port Trust, told BusinessLine .
The Kamarajar port’s cargo decline was mainly attributed to lesser volume of thermal coal handling. However, handling of liquids and containers witnessed an increase, according to IPA data.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.