September 08, 2008

Kakinada Old Port braces for a difficult year

A difficult year is ahead for the old port of Kakinada as union government has imposed a ban on export of non basmati rice. It has been doing exceedingly well for the past 3 years or so, mainly due to rice exports to Africa and other countries. In fact, more than half of the cargo handled by the old port is rice. The ban on rice exports is a big blow to the old port and, if the ban continues, 2008-09 may be a difficult year. The cargo throughput may not cross the usual 2 million tonnes or 2.5 million tonnes.

Kakinada port handled 4.19 million tonnes of cargo during 2007-08, with rice accounting for 2.25 million tonnes, fertilizers 1 million tonnes and the rest being other cargoes such as maize. Kakinada port earned INR 20 crore of revenue during 2007-08 up by 42.85% YoY as against INR 14 crore during 2006-07.

The new port at Kakinada handled 12.6 million tonnes of cargo during 2007-08, of which transhipment cargo accounted for more than 6 million tonnes and the rest was general cargo. The fourth berth at the deep water port has been commissioned recently and, therefore, the port is set to handle more cargo during the current financial year.

At the deep water port facilities have been created for export of alumina powder brought in from Orissa by Vedanta Alumina. Export has started on a small scale.