KARACHI: Cargo handling at Karachi Port Trust (KPT) has showed an improvement during July-June 2016-17 fiscal comparing to same period in previous year. The cargo handling operations, including export and import at KPT has remained brisk in financial year 2016-17. The total cargo handling closed at 52.49 million tonnes whereas the same remained 50.05 million tonnes during last year, showing an increase of cargo handling with plus 4.89 percent growth. Under the available facility of Deep Draft Berths, it has been possible to accommodate larger body vessels with more volume of cargo, Port handling officials informed. Similarly the container handling closed at 2.11 million Twenty Equivalent Units (TEU) equivalents to 20 feet container box size while the same remained at 1.96 million TEUs during the same period last year. The cargo handling at KPT breakup shows the Port has handled 37.17 million tonnes of import and export dry cargo whereas during last year 34.59 million tonnes cargo was handled which was quite adequate increased handling with 7.46 percent additional cargo in year 2016-17. The liquid bulk cargo of import and export has been closed at 15.32 million tonnes. The dry and liquid bulk cargo shows that the export cargo handling during financial year 2016-17 remained at 8.54 million tonnes and 1.32 million tonnes respectively as dry and liquid bulk cargo. The tonnage of export remained 8.40 million tonnes and 1.38 million tonnes during year 2015-16. Similarly, the handling of import dry and liquid bulk cargo also closed at 28.63 million tonnes and 14.00 million tones, whereas remained 26.19 million tonnes of dry cargo import and 14.07 million tonnes of liquid bulk cargo import. KPT has handled 9.32 percent additional dry import cargo during financial year 2016-17 and the major contribution in this growth can be attributed to dry bulk import cargo which stood 23.85 percent higher during year 2016-17. The Port recorded handling of export of urea this year apart from handling other import commodities like fertilizer and seeds. The ships traffic has also improved during financial year 2016-17 by witnessing arrival/departure of 758 container ships, 244 bulk cargo ships, 379 general cargo ships and 541 oil tankers. During last financial year 738 container ships, 222 bulk cargo ships, 374 general cargo ships and 559 oil tankers has been handled in year 2015-16. Published in Daily Times, July 6th , 2017.