Chennai container terminals lead the race in the East coast in terms of volumes handled in October, 2021

Container terminals in the Chennai port region led the race in handling container volumes in the East Coast during October 2021 by bagging 56 per cent of the market share. The four container terminals in the Chennai region including the Adani’s private port at Katupalli have handled 2,27,237 TEUs during this period from as many as 115 vessels according to Industry sources.

Chennai port terminals nowhere near Mundra port in volume

Though the Chennai port has been the pioneer in handling containers having started the terminal way back in early 1980’s, its volume is nowhere near Mundra Port in Gujarat or JNPT in Maharashtra. While Mundra has emerged as the largest container port in the country, JNPT remained the leader among the public sector ports

The central government’s massive investments in port infrastructure and rail connectivity during the last seven years have contributed to the growth of the west coast ports.

The terminals in Tuticorin Port in Southern Tamil Nadu which used bag the second position has now been relegated to the third position behind the terminal at Cochin during October. While the terminal in Cochin cornered 17 per cent of the market share, the Tuticorin port terminals had a combined tally of fifteen per cent. The Viskhapatnam container terminal took a market share of eleven per cent.

Among the terminals, PSA Chennai has handled the largest volume

Among the individual container terminals the PSA terminal in Chennai had handled 94,330 TEUS the largest volume among the terminals in the east coast cornering a market share of 23 per cent. The Cochin International container terminal had a volume of 66,903 TEUs and a market share of 17 per cent. The Dubai international terminal at Chennai handled 59,618 TEUs and a market share of 15 per cent.

The container terminal at Visakhapatnam had handled 43,011 TEUs with a market share of eleven per cent.

Contribution of other container terminals in the region are the container terminal at Ennore’s Kamarajar port where the terminal has been leased out to the Adani Ports handled 37,647 TEUs (9 per cent market share), Adani Ports own port at Katupalli 35,642 TEUs (9 per cent market share). Both the terminals are in the Chennai region.