KARACHI, July 24: Berth occupancy at Karachi port on Thursday soared to 85 per cent where as many as 26 berths remained occupied by 19 ships of different draughts and size, official sources said.

Lately the berth occupancy at the port had been consistently rising and after touching 70 and 67 per cent on July 23 and 21, respectively, it soared to 85 per cent on July 24, the sources said.

The average berth occupancy during the first three weeks of this month has been 60 per cent which has resulted in an increase of about 300,000 tons of dry cargo handling at the port over the corresponding period of last year.

The KPT sources said if the present rate of higher occupancy sustains for some time the cargo handling at the port may exceed three million tons target this year.

Berth occupancy is largely a function of the size of the ships and cargo handling speeds. With increase in size of ships and faster and efficient cargo handling methods, the sources said, the number of ships tends to reduce and so does the berth occupancy.

Despite these factors, maintaining an average occupancy of 60 per cent augurs well for the economy and the Karachi port which is a primary port of the country, the sources added.