International seaborne trade grow and fall in tandem
with the developments in world economy and global merchandize trade. Maritime
transport is the backbone of international trade and a key engine driving
globalization. Indian economy is at the threshold of a golden
age of growth and maritime trade has a significant role to play. Around 95% of Indian trade by volume and 70%
by value are carried by sea. It
is anticipated that the surge in trade will demand enhanced sophistication in
logistics infrastructure and services across modes.
Goldman
Sachs economists say that over the next 50 years, the BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India and
China) could become a much larger force globally. The Goldman Sachs economists
predict that India will overtake Italy in 2015, France in 2020, Germany in 2023
and Japan in 2032. Also they say:
“India has the potential to grow the fastest over the next 30 to 50 years.” Its
GDP growth rate will stay above 5 per cent till 2050 (Source : Report of working group for the port sector for the
12th five year plan (2012-2017) , GoI, MoS, October 2011).
Indian
Port Sector
India has an expansive coastline of about 7517km, studded with 12 major and 200
notified Non-Major ports. The 12 Major Ports are administered by the
Central Government, while the 200 Non-Major Ports are under the state
governments and union territories.
India’s Major Ports, with the exception of Ennore, are administered by port trusts under the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963. The
Port Trusts function as semi-autonomous bodies under the administrative wing of
the Ministry of Shipping. The major ports are Kandla, Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru
Port Trust (JNPT), Mormugao, New Mangalore, Kochi and Port Blair on the west
coast; and Kolkata, Paradip, Vishakhapatnam, Ennore, Chennai and Tuticorin on
the east coast . Ennore, a satellite port of Chennai, has been corporatised
with the Government of India holding a two-third stake, and the Chennai Port
Trust the rest.
The responsibility for the development of
Non-Major Ports vests with the concerned state government. They are administered under the Indian Ports Act, 1908.
The department in charge of ports or the State Maritime Board is responsible
for formulation of policies and plans,
regulating and overseeing the management , attracting private investments , enforcing environmental protection standards
and so on. Maritime boards have so far been constituted in Gujarat, Maharashtra
and Tamil Nadu.
Traffic
Trends
The volume of cargo traffic handled by ports depends
mainly on the performance of the global and domestic economy. Trend in cargo
traffic handled both at Major and Non-Major ports are given in the below table
Cargo
Handled at Indian Ports (Million Tonnes)
|
Note : Figs in parenthesis indicate growth over the
previous year, Source : Update on Indian Port Sector 31.03.14,
Transport Research Wing, MoS, GoI
Commodity
Profile
The cargo composition of traffic handled in major
ports in 2013-14 is POL 33.7%, Container 20.6%, Others 19.9%,Coal 18.8%, Iron
Ore 4.5% and Fertilizer 2.5%. It is to be noted that about 53% of the traffic
handled in Major port is POL and Coal, two major energy sources. Coal and POL
shows a growth of 20.4% and 3.6% respectively with respect to the previous year
and the upward trend is expected to continue in the coming years too.
Container, fertilizer and Iron ore slipped by 4.4% (-3.3% in terms of TEU) ,
7.4% and 9.2% respectively. The decline in Iron ore is mainly due to the
restriction of mining of iron ore in Karnataka and the ban in Goa.
Container traffic depends mainly on manufacturing
sector and the negative trend is the reflection of world economy slowdown,
especially the advanced economies. The
only major ports which showed growth in container traffic during 2013-14 are
Vizag, Tuticorin, Cochin and Mangalore. JNPT and Chennai continue to be the
No.1 and 2 ports in container handling at a rate of 55.8% and 25% respectively
in terms of TEUs.
Non-Major ports handled about 43% of the total seaborne
trade of India in 2013-14. Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra are the
leading maritime states in promoting Non-Major ports. Mainly POL and Coal
accounted for about 70% of the cargo handled at Non-Major Ports.
Traffic
Projections
The economic slowdown in the world trade and
domestic growth slowdown adversely
affected cargo traffic handled by Major Ports in 2012-13, growth was -2.6%. However , 2013-14 shows a positive growth
rate of 1.8%. For Non-Major Ports, the annual growth in cargo traffic is
assumed at about 10-11%. Keeping in view the trends in the share of
commodities, total cargo traffic at Indian ports is estimated to increase from
976 million tonnes in 2013-14 to 1,278 million tonnes by 2016-17.
Commodity wise
traffic projections (in million tonnes)from 2016-17 to 2031-32 are as under
Year/ 2016-17
2021-22 2026-27 2031-32
CAGR%
Cargo
POL 468 569 693 843 4
Iron Ore 107
118 131 144 2
Coal 258
379 556 817 8
F&FRM
42 49
56 65 3
Container
206 302 444 652 8
Others 198 278 390 546 7
Total 1,278 1,695 2,269 3,068
Source : NTDPC Report,2014.
Port
Capacity
The
existing capacity available in million tonnes at Major Ports as on 31.03.14 for
each commodity is as under (Source : Update on Indian Port Sector
31.03.14, Transport Research Wing, MoS, GoI):
Commodity Port Capacity
In Million Tonnes
POL 291.90
Iron Ore 72
Coal 65.95
Fertilizers 11.30
Containers 140.21
Others 219.16
Total 800.52
From the above traffic projections
and the existing capacity status, it is evident that port capacity needs to be planned
and developed in a big way , separately for each commodity group as each
requires different facilities. The international practice for ports is to plan
for cargo handling capacity of 30% more than the projected traffic so that
pre-berthing detention of ships is minimised.
