India’s west coast ports are handling more iron ore than similar facilities on the East Coast. Mormugao, for example, handled 43mt (million tonnes) in the 2009/10 financial year, with iron ore exports in the first two months of the present financial year amounting to 9.5mt compared with 8.75mt in the corresponding period last year. However, on the East Coast, ports are reporting lower than expected figures, brought about in part by the Orissa government’s decision to restrict mining. As a result, Haldia dock reported traffic in the first two months of just 700,000 tonnes, a 32% drop over the previous year. Paradip was down from 2.26mt to 2.06mt, while Vizag handled 1.25mt as opposed to the 1.4mt it handled in the same two months last year.
Barry Cross