Essar Ports' cargo throughput up 25% in 2016-17

Dry bulk cargo rises 52% to 30.39 mn tonnes; bulk of business comes from Essar Steel

Essar Ports, which operates port terminals on the east and west coasts of the country, has recorded a 25 per cent growth in its cargo traffic in 2016-17.

The consolidated cargo handling across the company's five operational ports at Hazira (Gujarat), Paradip (Odisha), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Salaya (Gujarat) and Vadinar (Gujarat) rose to 72.86 million tonnes in 2016-17, compared to 58.27 million tonne in the previous fiscal. Third-party traffic grew by 60 per cent.

Essar Ports' dry bulk cargo rose 52 per cent at 30.39 million tonnes (mt) compared to 19.97 mt in 2015-16. The anchor customer of Essar Ports' dry bulk