Cargo traffic shrinks over 10% YoY in Apr-Nov 2020

Cargo traffic at India's 12 major ports, which handle a little more than half the country's maritime transport activity, declined by 10.5% to 414 mn tonnes during April-November 20 compared with same period last year.

There has been a gradual improvement in traffic at major ports since June. After a gap of eight months traffic at the major ports in November was higher than last year by 3%. This is suggestive of a pickup in general economic activity both domestically and globally.

Mormugao Port, which handled 3% of the cargo traffic, was the only port that saw a growth (18%) in cargo traffic during April-November 20. There has been a sharper decline of coastal cargo traffic compared with overseas cargo traffic at major as well as non-major ports during April-October 20.

The sharpest fall in cargo traffic was at Kamarajar Port (-30%), followed by the Chennai Port (-20%), Mumbai Port (-19%) and Cochin Port (-18%).

The cargo traffic handled at 200 non-major ports fell 10.8% to 309.9 mn tonnes during April-October'20. There has, however, been a notable increase in monthly traffic from the sharp decline seen in April-May'20. The pickup in traffic has been faster at  non-major ports compared with the major ports.