22/10/2012 (Business Recorder) - The Karachi Port handled 173,838 tonnes of cargo comprising 137,698 tonnes of import cargo and 36,140 tonnes of export cargo including 7,254 loaded & empty containers during the last 24 hours ended at 0700 hours on Saturday. The total import cargo of 137,698 tonnes comprised 51,734 tonnes of containerised cargo; 7,611 tonnes of general cargo; 18,353 tonnes of bulk cargo and 60,000 tonnes of oil/liquid cargo.

The total export cargo of 36,140 tonnes comprised 33,456 tonnes of containerised cargo; 1,233 tonnes of general cargo and 1,451 tonnes of bulk cargo. As many as 7,254 containers comprising 3,878 containers import and 3,376 containers export were handled during the last 24 hours on Saturday.

The brakeup of imported containers shows 1,439 of 20's and 1,062 of 40's loaded while 303 of 20's and 6 of 40's empty containers, whereas that of exported containers shows 882 of 20's and 563 of 40's loaded containers while 454 of 20's and 457 of 40's empty containers were handled during the business hours.

Six ships with two container ships, two general cargo ships, one fertiliser carrier and one oil tanker respectively sailed out to sea during the reported period. Five vessels with two container ships, two general cargo ships and one oil tanker respectively are currently at the berths. W/A cargo volume of 84,570 tonnes comprising 52,217 tonnes of import cargo and 32,353 tonnes of export cargo inclusive 2,356 loaded & empty containers (TEUs) was handled at Port Qasim during the last 24 hours on Saturday.

The total import cargo of 52,217 tonnes includes 380 tonnes of MEG; 33,075 tonnes of diesel oil; 7,853 tonnes of palm oil; 4,233 tonnes of fertiliser and 6,676 tonnes of containerised cargo. The total export cargo of 32,353 tonnes includes 1,311 tonnes of wheat and 31,042 tonnes of containerised cargo.

A chemical carrier namely MV Harsanadi sailed out to sea during the last 24 hours, while another ship namely MT STX Forte with edible oil sailed out to sea on Saturday morning. A total number of eight vessels viz CV MSC Scotland, CV Cape Floris, MT STX Forte, MT Bow Lion, MT Al-Soor-II, MV Harsanadi, MV Anna Dorothea and MV Infinite Wisdom are currently occupying berths to load/offload containers, wheat, palm oil, chemicals, diesel oil and MEG respectively during the last 24 hours. A canola seed carrier MV King Coal is currently at the outer anchorage of Port Qasim. No ships are due to arrive on Saturday.