The weakening rupee, the eurozone crisis and the slowdown in the US have reduced India's imports and exports in the first quarter of the fiscal ending June, which, in turn, has impacted cargo handling at the Major Ports, Exim News Service reports.
All commodities, barring thermal coal, registered a decline in loading at the Major Ports in the first three months of 2012-13, with the result that total handling fell 5.49 per cent to 38.5 million tonnes compared to the same period of the previous year.
The almost 11 per cent growth in thermal coal handling during April-June helped Major Ports reduce the rate of decline of the total cargo handled, which was at a steeper 5.7 per cent in the April-May period.
As regards containerised traffic in Q1, all Major Ports handled 1.94 million TEUs, down 0.33 per cent. Two ports that saw improvement during the period were Kolkata Dock System and Visakhapatnam Port, with JN Port registering almost the same throughput.
Overall, ports that saw growth in Q1 were Ennore (35 per cent), Cochin (13.77 per cent), Mumbai (13.74 per cent), JN Port (1.99 per cent) and Kandla (0.09 per cent).
Major Ports handle nearly 60 per cent of India’s cargo moved by sea.