Mundra Port posts 16.7% growth in box traffic
Adani Group’s Mundra Port has registered a 16.7 per cent growth in containerised traffic handling for April-November on a year-on-year basis, bucking the gloomy trend in seen in all other key container handling ports such as the Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Chennai and Pipavav, Daily Shipping Times reports.
Container traffic at most of the ports have been hit by the slowdown in the country’s international trade. In US dollar terms, both exports and imports have registered a negative growth for the April-November period.
Non-oil imports during April-November - at $2,08,631.3 million – were lower by 7.07 per cent on a year-on-year basis.
Country’s exports for the period were at $1,89,222.20 million, down by 5.95 per cent year-on-year.
Mundra Port handled 1.94 million twenty feet equivalent units (TEUs) registering 16.7 per cent growth year-on-year for the eight month period this fiscal.
Chennai handled 1.04 million TEUs, reflecting 0.5 per cent dip. Box handling at the Kochi Port witnessed close to seven per cent drop during the period.
Mundra has recently started operating its third container terminal,” said Shailesh Garg, Director, Drewry Consulting India.
“Also, traffic potential in the immediate hinterland of Mundra is stronger compared to other ports in Gujarat, which depend more on cargo from northern hinterland. This is evident from the fact that around 60 per cent of containers at Pipavav are rail-based as against a 20-25 per cent range in Mundra and JNPT,” said Garg.
Anand V. Sharma, Director, Mantrana Maritime Advisory, said “From a pure geographical perspective, Mundra is located closer to the northern hinterland compared to JN Port and thus, has a natural lower distance advantage.
But, JNPT, being a large port and accounting for the largest container traffic in the country, has direct service of many shipping lines, who choose to call to JNPT due to large volume and economy of scale.”
Mundra starts handling larger volumes, logistically and based purely on distance comparison.
Pipavav is expanding its capacity to accommodate increasing traffic and this may assist in capturing part of future growth.
