Major ports handle 6 pc more

Petroleum products, coking and thermal coal constituted a major chunk, 4.42 mt, of an incremental cargo handled in April. Indian Ports Association data say major ports in India handled 49.55 mt of cargo traffic in April, registering a 6.27 per cent growth against the same period last fiscal. Predictably, owing to Karnataka's iron export ban (which has since been lifted), iron ore constituted only 2.5 mt and dragged the net addition to the total traffic to 2.92 mt.

Volumes of commodity gro­ups (and the corresponding gro­wth) include 15.5 mt of petroleum products (15.29 per cent growth over last April); 9.88 tonnes of containerised cargo (5.97 per cent growth); 4.57 mt of thermal coal (28.83 per cent growth); 2.94 mt of coking coal (84 per cent growth); 0.61 mt of raw fertiliser (91.8 per cent growth) and 0.49 mt of finished fertiliser (down 28.39 per cent).

All ports, except Mormu­gao, registered growth in traffic handled. Mormugao registered a 16.25 per cent dip in cargo handled primarily because of dip in iron ore cargo, at 4 mt.