Cargo movement has continued to grow at the Kochi port. Throughput during the April-September period this year has grown 19.62% to 14.26 million, according to Cochin Port Trust (CPT) sources. During the same period, container traffic too saw encouraging growth. Containerized cargo volume grew to 2,42,156 TEUs, a growth of nearly 11%.
According to data from the Indian Ports Association for the period between April and August this year, the cargo growth at Kochi port has been helped by growth in POL throughput. The increase in the commodity throughput was from 63,06,000 tonnes during April-August 2016 to 80,71,000 tonnes during April-August this year.
For the April-August period, Haldia Dock Complex, among other major port systems in the country, has come a close second in terms of growth with a rate a of just over 19%. The New Mangalore Port has shown a growth rate of 13.26% and Paradip Port a growth rate of 12.57%. At the same time, some of the major ports such as V.O. Chidambaranar has shown a fall in cargo traffic by more than 10% during the period. The all-India average growth rate for the major ports is 3.26%, the IPA data said.
The Kochi port had seen a total traffic throughput of 2,50,07,000 tonnes during the whole of 2016-17 against 2,20,98,000 during the previous financial year. Cargo movement at Kochi has shown consistent increase from 2012-13, according figures from the Port Trust here.