Essar Ports, which operates four terminals on the east and west coasts of India, has registered a 29 per cent growth in cargo volumes in the first two months of the current financial year (April-May 2019), with a throughput of 9.2 MT (million tonnes).

The growth has been driven by a 131 per cent increase in third-party cargo when compared to the same period in the previous financial year. Cargo volumes from captive customers also grew by 11 per cent, according to a company statement.

The overall cargo it handled in the first two fiscal months in 2019-20 was 9.2 MT (7.2 MT in April-May 2018), while captive cargo was 6.7 MT (6.1 MT), and third party cargo stood at 2.5 MT (1.1 MT).

In May 2019 alone, the four terminals cumulatively handled about 4.8 MT of cargo, a growth of 34% when compared to nearly 3.6 MT of cargo handled in May 2018.

Essar Ports is a leading private sector port operator in terms of capacity and throughput. It has four operational terminals in India—Hazira and Salaya (both in Gujarat) on the west coast, Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Paradip (Odisha) on the east coast.

The current operational capacity of the port terminals in India is 110 MTPA.