VIJAYWADA: The port of Visakhapatnam said on Wednesday it has recorded its best performance in 2019-20, with the port handling 72.72 million tonnes compared to the 65.30 mt in the previous year, an increase of 11.45%.
A VPT press release said that the cargo throughput had put the port at the third spot in cargo handling among all the major ports in the country, after Kandla in Gujarat and Paradip in Odisha.
“This is the best ever cargo handled in the 86 years of Visakhapatnam since 1933. It surpassed comfortably the nine-year-old record of 68 mt handled by the port in 2010-11, when private ports like Gangavaram and Krishnapatnam were not active at that time,” the release said.
“The cargo handling, despite heavy competition from private ports, the general economic slowdown in the financial year and massive impact on exim trade due to outbreak of covid-19, is very significant,” the release claimed.
The principal commodities handled during 2019-20 were crude oil and POL (18.92 mt); iron ore and pellets (14.39 mt); coking coal (7.45 mt); steam coal (9.27 mt); and containers 5.03 lakh TEUs.
“Visakhapatnam port witnessed a record growth in Nepal-bound container cargo. The port handled 42550 containers for Nepal against 16292 containers last year, thus registering a growth of 161%. With this Visakhapatnam port has emerged as a premier gateway port to Nepal traffic, surpassing Kolkata port, despite being geographically far from Nepal, compared to Kolkata,” the release said.
The port completed two berths in the Inner Harbour EQ-2 and EQ-3 with 14.5 metres draft at a cost of Rs 198 crore with a capacity of 6.45 mt.
A VPT press release said that the cargo throughput had put the port at the third spot in cargo handling among all the major ports in the country, after Kandla in Gujarat and Paradip in Odisha.
“This is the best ever cargo handled in the 86 years of Visakhapatnam since 1933. It surpassed comfortably the nine-year-old record of 68 mt handled by the port in 2010-11, when private ports like Gangavaram and Krishnapatnam were not active at that time,” the release said.
“The cargo handling, despite heavy competition from private ports, the general economic slowdown in the financial year and massive impact on exim trade due to outbreak of covid-19, is very significant,” the release claimed.
The principal commodities handled during 2019-20 were crude oil and POL (18.92 mt); iron ore and pellets (14.39 mt); coking coal (7.45 mt); steam coal (9.27 mt); and containers 5.03 lakh TEUs.
“Visakhapatnam port witnessed a record growth in Nepal-bound container cargo. The port handled 42550 containers for Nepal against 16292 containers last year, thus registering a growth of 161%. With this Visakhapatnam port has emerged as a premier gateway port to Nepal traffic, surpassing Kolkata port, despite being geographically far from Nepal, compared to Kolkata,” the release said.
The port completed two berths in the Inner Harbour EQ-2 and EQ-3 with 14.5 metres draft at a cost of Rs 198 crore with a capacity of 6.45 mt.