There are warnings that insufficient capacity to handle containerised cargo at India's ports is severely hindering the nation's export volumes, leading to higher costs for shippers and long delays to move goods.
The reasons say the experts is India's failure to increase capacity ahead of growth, with a report by Newsvine noting that about 95 per cent of the country's external trade by volume moves by sea.
It said that at an expected growth rate of 18-19 per cent a year, India's container cargo traffic is estimated to reach 21 million TEU annually by 2016.
SN Srikanth, founder of maritime consultancy firm Hauer Associates, was cited as saying in the report, "The container traffic growth at Indian ports has been stifled by low capacity creation."
The country's largest container port in Navi Mumbai is said to be facing a critical situation. This facility handles more than 60 per cent of India's container cargo or about 7.5 million TEU.
DK Tewari, chief executive officer of MSC Agency (India), a subsidiary of Mediterranean Shipping Co, said: "Each of the three terminals at Jawaharlal Nehru Port are operating at 110-120 per cent of their capacity when, ideally, they should not be operating at anything more than 90 per cent."
|
