Between April and July this year, the country's iron ore exports posted a 21.86 per cent drop at 25.29 million tonnes (32.36 mt in the same period of last year). During the period, at least Ennore, Belekeri, Karwar and Redi ports did not handle any iron ore traffic while four recorded significant drop in throughput — Krishnapatnam recording 98.54 per cent drop at 50,000 tonnes as compared to 3.41 mt in the same period of last year; Chennai 98.31 per cent at 29,000 tonnes (1.72 mt); Kakinada 77.72 per cent at 1.39 lakh tonnes (6.24 lakh); and New Mangalore 45.05 per cent at 5.72 lakh tonnes (10.41 lakh).
The four ports that did not export any iron ore traffic in first four months of the current fiscal together handled more than 3 mt in the same period of last year. By far the most successful growth story was scripted by Visakhapatnam port, which recorded 143.9 per cent growth at 2.49 mt (1.02 mt). Gangavaram posted 68.88 per cent growth at 9.66 lakh tonnes (5.72 lakh ), Haldia grew 53.3 per cent at 1.97 mt (1.29 mt) and Paradip gained 18.67 per cent at 3.5 mt (2.95 mt).