Between April and December 2012, the country’s major ports posted more than three per cent drop in traffic throughput at 405.77 million tonnes (mt).
The throughput during the same period of the previous year was 418.21 mt.
During the period, several of the country’s major ports posted negative growth in traffic, the drop ranging from as high as 47.36 per cent (Kandla at 14.9 mt) to as low as three per cent (JNPT at 47.9 mt).
The other ports recording negative growth included Visakhapatnam 16.04 per cent at 44.2 mt; Kolkata (including Haldia ) 14.65 per cent at 28.86 mt and Chennai 4.87 per cent at 39.89 mt. Haldia alone recorded 17.31 per cent drop at 20.2 mt.
The ports recording positive growth included Kandla, Ennore, New Mangalore and Mumbai.
Volumewise Kandla topped the list with a throughput of 69.5 mt. But the growth at 14.1 per cent was lower than 17.5 per cent achieved by Ennore at 12.21 mt. New Mangalore posted 11.52 per cent at 27 mt and Mumbai 9.63 per cent at 44 mt.
Other ports posted negligible growth – Paradip 0.61 per cent at 40.75 mt; V.O. Chidambarnar 0.47 per cent at 20.9 mt and Kochi 0.14 per cent at 14.89 mt.