The container traffic, too, declined to 2.23 lakh teus in the first six months from 2.66 lakh teus from April to September last year. The decline has been attributed to higher handling volumes at JNPT and the P&O-run Nhava Sheva International Terminal.

The decline in handling volumes was across all categories of cargo. While POL traffic declined to 8.36 million tonnes from 8.9 million tonnes, the non-POL traffic was 6.72 million tonnes, down from 6.87 million tonnes registered in the first half of last year.

Although traffic has been lower, productivity parameters have registered an improvement. The pre-berthing detention improved by 60 per cent to 0.3 days compared with 0.75 days last year. The average turnaround of ships was 4.10 days compared with 5.38 days last year, an improvement of 23 per cent. Of this the turnaround time for container vessels is 3.44 days compared with 3.84 days earlier. The same for other vessels has dropped to 4.1 days from 5.38 days previously. Both, however, remain much below the average at international ports.