Krishnapatnam Port, the country’s largest all-weather; deep water port on the east-coast of India, in its quest to become best port globally has increased its draft for container terminal to 16 meters. With the new milestone, Krishnapatnam Port Container Terminal now shares the honor of being one of the deepest draft container ports on the east coast of India.

Pakistan International Bulk Terminal (PIBT), the neighbouring country’s first coal and cement handling facility has started commercial operations at Port Qasim in Karachi. this week with the handling of a cargo vessel that brought 41,000 tons of coal, according to a statement issued on Wednesday.

EssarPorts, which operates port terminals on the east and west coasts of India, hasrecorded a 25 percent growth in cargo traffic in FY 2016-17.

JSW Infrastructure (JSWIL) signed an agreement with Port of Fujairah for management of mechanised bulk cargo handling terminals on November 8, 2016. This is first foreign venture by JSW Infrastructure.

The Essar bulk terminal at Hazira is all set to expand from the current 30 mtpa to 50 mtpa, up by 67 per cent, by this year end. Company officials say that the terminal’s current 550 metre berth will be expanded by a further 1,100 metre. Post completion, the port will have capability of simultaneously handling seven vessels at any point of time.

Essar Port is investing Rs.750 crore to enhance the capacity of its Hazira terminal to 50 million ton per annum from 30 million tons.

India is the third largest pre-engineered building (PEB) market in the world after the US and China. With a market size of about half a million metric tonne and a growth rate of 8-10 per cent, according to industry estimates, however, the growth hasn't been a pervasive one.

The Indian port sector has gathered pace with the government´s focus on revival of the manufacturing sector through the ´Make in India´ campaign. The manufacturing sector is likely to drive the growth of the port sector as the carrier of cargo - ports

Capacity constraints, low level of mechanisation, low pace of project execution, lack of last mile connectivity, shallow drafts, etc., are the factors that affect cargo handling of the major ports, states Ravi Parmar