JNPT tops in CI survey

Mumbai, Apr 13 (UNI) The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) staged a major comeback to the elite rung of globe's 30 major ports, a recognition that eluded it nearly four years, winning a gross throughput of 3084000 TEUs, apparently leaving the Colombo port, its major rival in South Asia, behind in the race, a survey revealed.

According to journal Containerisation International (CI), who conducted the case study, JNPT has bettered its performance by 19.8 percentage in the year 2006 gaining an annual hike of 508679 TEUs with a growth of 19.8 percent, leaving the Colombo port, its major competitor and the emerging South Asian hub behind. The Colombo port registered a throughput of 3079132 TEUs.

JNPT was ranked 28th in the CI survey immediately followed by the Colombo port (29).

JNPT, whose name last appeared in the prestigious listing wayback in 2003 with a throughput of 2174098 TEUs, was struggling hard for a return by hiking its gross annual container handling, prominently concentrating on the North American and far east operations.

Meanwhile, the Colombo port that handled a throughput of 2455297 TEUs in the year 2005, bettered JNPT in terms of growth margins. The busy South Asian hub succeeded to register a commendable growth rate of 25.4 in the year 2006 against the preceding year.

Singapore port retained its top poistion with a gross output of 24792400 TEUs, improving its own previous year record of 23192200 TEUs in the survey, with a growth rate of 6.9 percent. Hongkong port followed second with 23230000 TEUs and Shanghai port third by handling 21710000 TEUs. Nine Chinese ports, including the Hongkong port, have found place in the listing, study revealed.

UNI