The 12th annual conference on “Ports in India- New Focus Areas and Challenges: Solutions and Strategies” will be held on January 28-29, at The Leela, Mumbai.
The mission of this conference is to analyse key trends, provide an update on policy developments, discuss key issues, examine implementation strategies and highlight opportunities for the next few years.
The conference also aims to showcase noteworthy projects, best practices and most promising technologies.
Background
The past few years have seen a weak world economy and not much growth in terms of international trade. This has meant a difficult time for the Indian port sector, especially major ports. During 2009-10 to 2013-14, while traffic at non-major ports grew at a CAGR of 10 per cent, major ports witnessed a decline in traffic.
Capacity at major ports has not seen much growth either. In some instances, traffic has been severely impacted by the decision to ban iron ore exports. While some big capacity augmentation projects have been awarded, financing remains an issue and the private sector continues to maintain a cautious attitude.
The year 2014-15 has shown a slight improvement for major ports with a year-on-year cargo traffic growth of 4.2 per cent during the first six months (April-September) of current fiscal year (compared to 2.3 per cent in the corresponding period of 2013-14).
On the other hand, the existing non-major ports, especially private ports, continue to grow due to factors such as a diversified cargo portfolio, superior operating efficiency and infrastructure, and the presence of captive cargo streams. However, the development of greenfield ports is marred with delays due to issues related to land acquisition, approvals, etc.
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Dredging Today Staff