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JNPT’s traditional position as the leading container gateway for the Indian market has been usurped by the port of Mundra, at least temporarily it would appear, as the latter achieved a higher throughput in the April-June quarter for the first time.
While Mundra handled 970,940 teu in this period, JNPT recorded just 847,844 teu. Karan Adani, Adani Ports CEO, hailed the milestone achievement: “I’m delighted to share a terrific update on Mundra port which edged past JNPT port and became the largest container port in India in the first quarter of the 2021 financial year. Our next goal is making Mundra port the largest container port in the world!”
Adani Ports’ network of nine ports was nonetheless significantly impacted by the pandemic. The total volume of cargo handled over the three months, 41.5 million tonnes, was around 27% less than in the equivalent period of the previous financial year. Even Mundra’s container traffic figures represented a drop of almost 18 % compared to the 1.18 million teu recorded in the first quarter of the 2020 financial year. However, JNPT was impacted far more severely, with container volumes over the three months representing a 35% drop.
Overall, across all the major Indian ports, container throughput totalled 1.74 million teu, a sharp decline of more than 32% from the 2.57 million teu recorded in the first three months of the previous year. There is an expectation however of a robust recovery in India’s container trades in the second quarter, as lockdown measures are eased.
