News

            NEW DELHI, JAN 27: DATA  provided by the Indian Ports Association (IPA) revealed that, for the third quarter of the current fiscal (October-December), Major ports have registered  cargo growth of 10.7 per cent compared to the corresponding period of 2008-09, although sequentially the growth was pegged at 9.7 per cent.

           Containerised cargo too has registered an impressive growth of 42 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) and 12.2 per cent month -on-month (m-o-m) mainly on the back of revival of overseas demand.

           This increase in cargo handling at ports, a key indicator of economic activity, is certainly an encouraging sign for shipping in general. The volume of cargo handled in December 2009 stood at 49.1 million tonnes compared with 45.3 million tonnes in December 2008-a growth of 8.3 per cent.

           On a sequential basis, cargo volumes increased by 1.9 per cent over the previous month.

            Iron ore volumes, though, declined by 10.5 per cent y-o-y and by 8.6 per cent m-o-m. While coal volumes went up by 3.2 per cent y-o-y, sequentially the cargo volumes dipped by 4.6 per cen.

          Crude volumes registered a fall of 2 per cent y-o-y. During the third quarter, container and iron ore volume grew by 16.6 per cent y-o-y, whereas fertilisers and crude declined by 7.8 per cent y-o-y and 1.1 per cent y-o-y.

         Mr Anand Sharma, Union Minister for Commerce, recently expressed  confidence that, “exports have found their positive growth trajectory again, Exports will reach $ 200 billion by the next fiscal-end.

         “By 2014, we will double our exports from last year’s $ 287 billion, including $ 186 billion in goods exports and $ 101 billion in service exports.”