BL reported that Concor's dependency on JN Port has declined following competition from newer ports on the West Coast. In 2010-11, 64.2% of Concor's export import traffic movement was through JN Port compared to 74% in 2009-10.

Concor ran fewer trains to JN Port in 2010-11 against the previous year.

This is because the competing ports on the West coast, Pipavav and Mundra, are seeing good growth in container traffic handling. For Concor's business, such a shift is mixed bag. From a risk perspective, it is good because the business gets distributed across ports, while in revenue terms it might have a negative impact.

Mr Anil Kumar Gupta MD of Container Corporation of India said that "Share of Concor's container movement to JN Port is down, while that to Pipavav and Mundra is improving. APM Maersk has its own terminal in Pipavav, so the shipping line has diverted some of its cargo there."

He added that "In revenue terms, it is not a very happy sign because JNPT provided the longest lead. If long lead traffic routes become less important in portfolio, it would reflect on Concor's earnings."

Mr Gupta said that "In terms of movement of trains per day to JN Port, there were 16 trains in import direction and 16 trains in export direction each day in 2009-10. It came down to 14 each way in 2010-11."

He said that but, this also has a silver lining as there will be more capacity in JN Port. He added that "So, Concor can look at increasing its rakes to JN Port."

(Sourced from Hindu Business Line)