WASHINGTON: V.O.Chidambaranar Port here has handled an all time record cargo traffic of 36.85 million tonnes during 2015-16 and surpassed the previous year’s achievement of 32.41 million tonnes, registering an increase of 13.70 percent. As compared to the target set by the Ministry of Shipping at 36.80 million tonnes, this performance is higher by 0.14 percent. Thus the Port had crossed the target of 36.80 million tonnes by handling 36.85 million tonnes on March 31, 2016.
According to a statement from the VOC Port Trust on Friday, in the container segment, the Port handled a record traffic of 6, 11,714 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) during 2015-16. When compared to the previous year’s container traffic at 5, 59,727 TEUs, there has been an increase of 9.29 percent.
While the imports accounted for 27.37 million tonnes registering an increase of 14.09 percent when compared to the previous year’s import traffic of 23.99 million tonnes, the exports registered a growth of 12.59 percent by handling 9.48 million tonnes of cargo when compared to the previous financial year’s export traffic of 8.42 million tonnes .
This Port has handled 14.80 million tonnes of coal achieving a growth of 7.25 percent, 12.39 million tonnes of containerised cargo registering a growth of 12.33 percent, 1.24 million tonnes of copper concentrate resulting in an increase of 2.48 percent when compared to the last financial year.
This achievement was possible due to increase in volume of import cargoes like coal, fertilizer, copper concentrate, containerised cargo, lime stone, liquid ammonia, products like naphtha, furnace oil, iron ore, salt in bulk, pulses, clinkers, wheat, maize and oil cake copra.
On the export front, there was increase in the volume of cargoes such as construction material, containerised cargoes, caustic soda lye, machinery, iron and steel materials, fly ash, Ilmenite sand, garnet sand, gypsum and cement.
In terms of financial performance, the Port’s operating surplus stood at Rs. 312.33 crore, net surplus before tax stood at Rs. 167.91 crore and the operating ratio was 44.04 percent.
Anantha Chandra Bose, Chairman, V.O.C. Port Trust thanked all stakeholders, trustees, Port users, vessel operators, container terminal operators, officers, employees and the dedicated work force for their contribution.
