Shipping ind upbeat as cargo volume witnesses steady growth

Visakhapatnam: Going by the sustained growth momentum post-pandemic witnessed by the 12 major ports in India, the shipping industry is confident of further consolidating the trend in increase in volumes of cargo during 2023-24.

With the Indian Ports Association (IPA) and the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways expressing satisfaction over the surge in volumes of traffic, which was hit hard first by the lockdowns imposed in the aftermath of covid and later due to Russia-Ukraine war, have shown signs of recovery since the beginning of the financial year. Industry experts say the consolidation process will further continue in FY24.

National Association of Container Freight Stations (NACFS) vice-president G Sambasiva Rao told Bizz Buzz on Friday that the steady rise in cargo volumes is a good sign and with focus on faster evacuation of cargo by addressing the bottlenecks faced by the industry for hassle-free last-mile connectivity, they are hopeful that all the ports will surpass their targets. The ports have also undertaken the initiative for involvement of PPP players in a big way for berth modernisation and mechanisation as part of landlord port model development.

IPA, in the provisional data released for October, disclosed an increase in volumes of cargo in the major ports by 13 per cent. Container cargo saw a growth of 19 per cent - almost one-third of total cargo as against seven per cent increase in September. Suggesting growth in inland transport, a record 3.14 lakh tonne of cargo was transported through India-Bangladesh Protocol Route. On the whole, thermal coal, coking coal, other industrial coals and iron ore saw sustained growth in the fiscal. All the major ports in the first half handled 393.73 million tonnes witnessing an increase by 2.35 per cent year-on-year compared to 795 million tonnes last year. Union Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal recently said there were an increase in techno-economic parameters at all the ports mainly due to improvement in gross tonnage, turnaround and pre-berthing time.

Visakhapatnam Port Authority (VPA) Chairman M Angamuthu said they created a record by handling 50 million metric tonne in just 228 days in the financial year 2023-24 surpassing previous record achieved in 251 days in the last fiscal.

Among all the major ports, Paradip Port Authority (PPA) has emerged as the frontrunner beating Deen Dayal (Kandla) Port. PPA clocked 69.13 million tonne in the current fiscal year H1. It also recorded an incremental growth of 8.5 per cent over the corresponding period last year.

According to Press Information Bureau, “for the first time drifting away from the trend (it had continuously occupied second slot) PPA has secured the first position by achieving the highest cargo traffic.”