Mundra Port, which is the main port belonging to businessman Gautam Adani’s company, Adani Ports and Special Economic Port Ltd (APSEZ), has achieved a milestone by handling over 7 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU’s) for the first time in its 25-year history.
This happened just before the end of the financial year on March 31. The company highlighted that this accomplishment shows the port’s strong infrastructure and its ability to handle large amounts of cargo efficiently.
Mundra Port is not only India’s largest commercial port but also the biggest container facility in the country. In the financial year 2022-23, the port managed 6.64 million TEUs, which is about 64 percent of the total 155.4 million tonnes of cargo handled at the port. Comparatively, the 12 major ports owned by the Indian government handled around 11.391 million TEUs during the same period, with Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority managing 6.05 million TEUs.
Since the financial year 2009-10, Mundra Port has been experiencing a growth rate of around 16 percent annually in container volumes. This growth is attributed to the port’s customer-focused approach, improved productivity, innovative logistics solutions, quicker vessel turnaround times, and faster container evacuation through railway and double-stack container trains.
Container handling is one of the fastest-growing segments at Mundra port. Over the last decade, the volume of containers at Mundra has grown by 15 percent annually, while the total volume of goods handled by the port has grown by 7 percent annually.
Mundra Port operates five container terminals across 12 berths with a combined capacity of about 8 million TEUs. To accommodate the increasing volumes, a new berth called T3, with a capacity of 0.8 million TEUs, is being set up. With the port experiencing double-digit growth rates annually, it will soon reach its full container handling capacity and require further expansion to meet demand.
Internationally, ports aim for around 70 percent capacity utilization for efficient operations without congestion and productivity issues. Currently, Mundra Port’s container terminals are operating at about 85 percent capacity utilization, managing to avoid bottlenecks that could disrupt its operations.