Iron ore traffic zooms 416% in April-June period

Total iron ore cargo shipped by major ports was 9.6 mt compared to 1.8 mt in the year-ago period

Iron ore cargo movement including pellets through major ports spiked 416 per cent in the April-June period of this financial year, signalling the revival of the commodity that had witnessed a fall of 28 per cent in 2015-16.

Total iron ore cargo shipped by major ports was 9.6 million tonne (mt) for the period ended June compared to 1.8 mt in the year-ago period.

Amongst major ports, Mormugao port was the biggest gainer from revival of iron ore traffic. The port handled 3.9 mt of iron ore alone of its total cargo of 8.4 mt. The spurt in iron ore traffic also led to the port logging 104 per cent overall growth in traffic, pipping all other ports.

"For Mormugao port, the unprecedented gain was mostly driven by exports of low grade iron ore from Goa. Other ports handling iron ore cargo have also reported high volume growth", said an industry source.

For Paradip port, iron ore cargo during the period under review, was up nearly nine times from 0.1 mt to 1.009 mt. Visakhapatnam port logged three-fold growth in iron ore from 0.8 mnt to 2.6 mnt.

Iron ore outperformed all commodities in port traffic growth in the period. POL cargo movement was nearly flat with only 2.4 per cent growth. Finished fertilisers and coking coal reported decline of 12.84 per cent and 3.14 per cent respectively.

Global shipments of iron ore too are on a record high. According to latest data, iron ore exports from Port Hedland in Australia rose by nine per cent month-over-month in June 2016 to 41.8 mnt. This was a record level of shipments from Port Hedland, surpassing March 2016 record of 39.5 mnt.

The current surge came after Roy Hill, an iron ore project in Western Australia, started shipping ore in December last year. The company expects to reach its nameplate capacity of 55 mnt per year by the end of 2016.