KARACHI: The Karachi Port handled 38.732 million tons of cargo during the out-going fiscal year, showing an increase of 4.14 per cent over last year when 37.192 million tons of cargo was handled.

According to official figures, the port handled 26.958 million tons of dry cargo, 11.774 million tons of liquid cargo during the 2008-09 fiscal year as against 25.449 million tons dry and 11.743 million tons of liquid bulk cargo, respectively.

There was a quantum increase in handling of liquid bulk cargo at oil piers where a total of 9.786 million tons of liquid bulk cargo (imports) was handled, showing an increase of 3.2 per cent over last year when 9.478 million tons was handled.

The Karachi Port handled 1.25 million TEUs during the out-going fiscal year compared to 1.214 million boxes handled last year. On the import front, the port handled 651,000TEUs whereas exports containers numbered 599,000.

The port for the first time handled a large container vessel with a capacity of 5600TEUs.

Around 2294 ships called at the Karachi Port during the year out of these 48 per cent were container vessels.

According to details, during the out-going fiscal year, 494 bulk cargo vessels, 283 general cargo vessels and 428 oil-tankers called at the port.

Overall ship movement was higher by 8.11 per cent over the last fiscal year, which indicates that the economy was doing fairly well at a time when many stronger economies of the world have been ripped apart by recession and financial meltdown.

The official figures showed that the port handled more export cargo which stood higher by 14.47 per cent over the previous year.

A total of 13.732 million tons of export cargo was handled during 2008-09 as against 11.675 million tons during the last fiscal year.