The 12 major ports of the country have registered a meager 2.02% growth during April-July 2010 with the traffic touching 184 million tonnes (MT) from 180 MT last year for the same period. A port official from the east coast attributes the rainy season for the dismal cargo handling performance of the ports. "It is generally dull compared to other seasons," he averred. "The rainy season, which generally stretches from April to August- September, usually affects the iron ore traffic very badly," he said.
Of the cargo that the ports handled during the period, iron ore has displayed the worst performance, clocking -10.53% growth. As against 30 MT of iron ore that they handled during the four-month period last year, what all the 12 ports could handle was 26 MT during period under review. The fact that Mormugao Port handled 12 MT of ore as against the 10 MT that it did last year, it could not help much to lift the overall performance of iron ore traffic at Indian ports.
Finished fertilizer traffic grew 36.98% as against fertilizer raw materials which registered grew only 3.96%.
While coking coal registered 19.61% growth, thermal coal traffic has gone down by 13.87%.
However, there is good news about container trade. Box traffic has posted 14.22% growth in tonnage terms with all the ports together handling about 37 MT during the period.
According to Indian Ports Association (IPA), the total volume for the first four months of fiscal 2010-11 stands 2.5 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) as against 2.2 million TEUs.
Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP) and Chennai Port, which account for almost 75% of the country's total exports and imports of box cargo, posted significant gains. While JNP has handled 1.5 million TEUs, up 14% from a year earlier, in Chennai the traffic has surged 33% to 502,000 TEUs.
The mainstay of India's exim trade, POL has registered a paltry 3.33% growth during the period under study.
Talking about traffic performance numbers and monthly targets, shipping ministry seems to be having a liberal attitude about them. For example, it has dispensed with the system of having monthly targets for each of the 12 ports from this fiscal year onwards. Earlier, the ministry used to assess the traffic performance of a port by taking into consideration the target assigned by it. Individual port performances were also analysed at meetings, held quarterly if not monthly, called by the ministry. These achievements, according to official sources, were also used for assessing the performance of the port chairmen.
According to the sources, the ministry would now be looking at yearly performance of the ports. The performance parameters would follow a yearly pattern. "Even cumulative annual growth for the last 5 years of the port is looked into while assessing its performance," he said.
"As such monthly targets rarely featured in the meetings on port performance," said a source known to be part of such review meetings."
"For a port, performance for any given month is measured against its achievement during the same month the previous year," he added.
However, the official admitted that absence of a ministry-imposed target could prove to be grouping in the dark for those people familiar with the earlier system.
For companies in the corporate sector monthly targets may be something that they cannot do without. But for the major ports, which are said to be moving towards becoming corporatized, monthly targets are something that they have said goodbye to, at least for the time being. "Everyone seems to be quite happy with it," said a port official in Mumbai.
Of the cargo that the ports handled during the period, iron ore has displayed the worst performance, clocking -10.53% growth. As against 30 MT of iron ore that they handled during the four-month period last year, what all the 12 ports could handle was 26 MT during period under review. The fact that Mormugao Port handled 12 MT of ore as against the 10 MT that it did last year, it could not help much to lift the overall performance of iron ore traffic at Indian ports.
Finished fertilizer traffic grew 36.98% as against fertilizer raw materials which registered grew only 3.96%.
While coking coal registered 19.61% growth, thermal coal traffic has gone down by 13.87%.
However, there is good news about container trade. Box traffic has posted 14.22% growth in tonnage terms with all the ports together handling about 37 MT during the period.
According to Indian Ports Association (IPA), the total volume for the first four months of fiscal 2010-11 stands 2.5 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) as against 2.2 million TEUs.
Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP) and Chennai Port, which account for almost 75% of the country's total exports and imports of box cargo, posted significant gains. While JNP has handled 1.5 million TEUs, up 14% from a year earlier, in Chennai the traffic has surged 33% to 502,000 TEUs.
The mainstay of India's exim trade, POL has registered a paltry 3.33% growth during the period under study.
Talking about traffic performance numbers and monthly targets, shipping ministry seems to be having a liberal attitude about them. For example, it has dispensed with the system of having monthly targets for each of the 12 ports from this fiscal year onwards. Earlier, the ministry used to assess the traffic performance of a port by taking into consideration the target assigned by it. Individual port performances were also analysed at meetings, held quarterly if not monthly, called by the ministry. These achievements, according to official sources, were also used for assessing the performance of the port chairmen.
According to the sources, the ministry would now be looking at yearly performance of the ports. The performance parameters would follow a yearly pattern. "Even cumulative annual growth for the last 5 years of the port is looked into while assessing its performance," he said.
"As such monthly targets rarely featured in the meetings on port performance," said a source known to be part of such review meetings."
"For a port, performance for any given month is measured against its achievement during the same month the previous year," he added.
However, the official admitted that absence of a ministry-imposed target could prove to be grouping in the dark for those people familiar with the earlier system.
For companies in the corporate sector monthly targets may be something that they cannot do without. But for the major ports, which are said to be moving towards becoming corporatized, monthly targets are something that they have said goodbye to, at least for the time being. "Everyone seems to be quite happy with it," said a port official in Mumbai.
Source: Economic Times
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