KOLKATA: The Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) is expected to finish the current fiscal with a mere 2-3 per cent growth in cargo handling owing to the economic slowdown and novel coronavirus outbreak, officials said.

The KoPT, which was renamed as Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, had witnessed 10 per cent growth in cargo volume with a pre-tax surplus of Rs.65 crore in the financial year 2018-19. It had handled 63.7 million tonnes of goods last fiscal.

“Our cargo handling growth will be restricted to 2-3 per cent this fiscal. However, other than stoppage of iron ore exports to China due to unavailability of vessels, there has been no major impact in other cargo shipments so far. Iron ore exports had grown manifolds last fiscal,” KoPT Chairman Vinit Kumar said recently.

Shipments to and from China account for 25-30 per cent of KoPT’s total traffic.

Port officials fear that the slowdown in cargo movement may be more evident in the first quarter of 2020-21 fiscal.

The next few days will be crucial in understanding which way the situation is headed, a port official said.

“A ship takes around 40 days to arrive at Kolkata from ports in China. So far, a few ships have come from the Country, and the port authorities had tested crew members at Sandheads before the vessels were allowed to dock,” he said.

The KoPT is following all standard operating procedures in screening the crew members. However, there is no restriction in movement of cargo vessels from any Country, the official said.

The Centre has barred entry of cruise ships into Indian ports.