Indian Ports: Poised to handle 21 M TEU

Congested ports and other creaky transport infrastructure have become a growing problem for Asia’s third-largest economy and the world’s second-fastest growing large economy after China.

The Indian government plans to double cargo handling capacity at the country’s ports to 1.5 billion metric tonnes (mt) per by 2012.

If the current growth rate of 19% is kept to, India’s container throughput is estimated to hit some 21 million TEUs per year by 2016.

India could handle up to 1.5 billion tonnes of cargo per year by 2012

The investments, through public-private partnerships, would total some $25 billion, APVN Sharma, Secretary for the Department of Shipping in the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, told local press.

A 2007-2008 Global Competitiveness Report from the World Economic Forum highlighted ‘inadequate supply of infrastructure’ and ‘inefficient government bureaucracy’ as the two leading problems in doing business in India.

Meanwhile, latest official statistics showed container throughput at India’s 12 major ports grew 19.03% year-on-year for fiscal 2008.

The 12 major ports handled 6.60 million TEUs in the 12 months up to March 2008, out of which Navi Mumbai’s Jawaharlal Nehru port (Nhava Sheva) handled 4.06 million TEUs, accounting for more than 61% of the total throughput.

Singapore, the world’s busiest port, moved nearly 24 million boxes at its terminals last year, while India’s biggest port, JNPT handles around 4.06 million twenty-foot containers a year.

The other 11 major ports are located at Mumbai, Kolkata, Paradip, Vizag, Ennore, Chennai, Tuticorin, Kochi, Mangalore, Mormugao and Kandla.

According to a Live Mint.com report, “container cargo represents only about 30% by value of India’s external trade—pale when compared with the global containerized cargo average of 70-75%.”

Krishnapatnam port, close to the sea trade lanes linking Asia to the Persian Gulf and Europe, is dedicated to Nation in July 2008 and will be completed by 2011.

It will have an initial annual capacity of 1 million twenty-foot containers, Mahesh Goel, the head of Krishnapatnam Port Company’s container business, told Reuters in an interview.

The company hopes that within 10 years around 60 percent of its container traffic will be coming from trans-shipments — cargo moved from small, regional feeder ships on to large vessels that can carry close to 10,000 containers and serve the world’s main trade routes between Asia, America and Europe. “Initially, trans-shipment will make up 5-10 percent of total container volume but we are aiming to bring that to 60 percent by 2016/17,” he said, adding that Indian ports were lacking the infrastructure to manage large numbers of containers. Port operators tend to focus on achieving high volumes of container trans-shipments because margins are low.

“We are also looking into opening two more ports on India’s east coast and one on the west coast,” he said but declined to give details because the projects are still at an early stage.

 Source : Port word, Ministry of shipping, Mint, Reuters