Major Ports' Cargo traffic up 3% at 383 MT in Apr-Oct FY18
NEW DELHI: The Country's 12 Major Ports witnessed 3.26 per cent rise in cargo traffic to 382.91 million tonnes (MT) during April-October period of the current fiscal, mainly due to pick up in iron ore demand.
These top ports, under the control of the Centre, had handled 370.81 MT cargo during the April-October period of the last fiscal.
The growth in cargo traffic was mainly on the back of higher handling of products like iron ore and POL (petroleum, oil and lubricants) besides containers, as per data from the Indian Ports Association (IPA).
The ports recorded a 17.97 per cent growth in handling of iron ore traffic during the period to 25.30 MT, while both POL and containers registered a growth of over 6 per cent each.
Deendayal Port handled the highest traffic volume of 63.13 MT during the April-October period followed by Paradip Port 55.78 MT, JNPT 37.90 MT, Mumbai Port 36.72 MT and Visakhapatnam 35.74 MT, according to IPA data.
Kolkata Port, including Haldia, handled 32.13 MT of cargo, while Chennai Port handled 30.48 MT.
Volume of seaborne cargo is essentially in the nature of derived demand and is mainly shaped by the levels and changes in both the global and domestic activity.
India has 12 Major Ports: Deendayal, Mumbai, JNPT, Marmugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore, V O Chidambarnar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia), which handle approximately 61 per cent of the Country's total cargo traffic.
Haldia Dock Complex to get floating jetty by January : KoPT Chairman
KOLKATA: The proposed floating jetty at Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) of the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) is likely to be operational by January.
A floating jetty will allow cargo from larger ships anchored at Sagar Islands to be offloaded at Haldia.
It will allow barges to unload cargo from larger ships anchored at Sagar Islands. The barges will not have to enter the port through the lockgates.
Due to draught constraints, large vessels with capacity loads cannot enter the Haldia dock.
Such ships normally unload a part of their cargo at other ports before coming into Haldia, and this leads to additional cost for the shipper and revenue loss for KoPT.
Currently, transloading operations are carried out at Sagar Island by KoPT.
According to Vinit Kumar, Chairman, KoPT, the floating jetty will allow faster operations at Haldia, apart from adding to the port’s existing capacities.
Accordingly, two (floating) cranes – with a 2.2-mtpa capacity – will be deployed at Sagar Island at Rs. 66 crore.
“By January, operations at the floating jetty should start. The floating cranes are on the way,” Kumar said. The floating cargo handling facilities at Haldia – which will have a capacity of 2.55 mtpa – will come up at an expected cost of Rs. 73 crore.
Work orders had been placed in September 2015 and work onshore and marine constructions are in progress.
KoPT sources say, with the floating jetty and cranes in place, the daily cargo handling capacity at Haldia is expected to go up by at least 10,000 tonnes a day. At present, the cargo handling capacity there stands at 3,000 tonnes a day.
Till September this year, the KoPT handled 27.5 mt of cargo traffic, of which the Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) handled a majority of almost 70 per cent or over 19.1 mt.
State run agencies to import 2,000 tonnes onion : Ram Vilas Paswan
NEW DELHI: State-run MMTC will import 2,000 tonnes of onion, while Nafed and SFAC will buy 12,000 tonnes locally in order to boost supplies and check prices, Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said recently.
He said that his Ministry has again written to the Commerce Ministry to reimpose export floor price of USD 700 per tonne on onion to discourage outbound shipments.
"We have asked Nafed (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India) to procure 10,000 tonnes and SFAC (Small Farmers Agriculture-business Consortium) about 2,000 tonnes directly from farmers and sell in consuming areas. We have also asked the MMTC to import 2,000 tonnes," Paswan said.
While the private traders have imported 11,400 tonnes in the last few months, now the Government agency MMTC will soon float tenders to import 2,000 tonnes in two tranches