Among all major ports in India, Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) has been adjudged as the 'Container Handling Port of the Year,' at the 5th South East Cargo & Logistics Awards 2013 ceremony. The recognition for KoPT is for its excellence in container handling in 2012-13. The award was received by I Jeyakumar, Deputy Chairman, KoPT in Chennai. After receiving the award, KoPT chairman RPS Kahlon said that the port has been holding third position in respect to container traffic among the 12 major ports in the country.    

The Kolkata port has also registered the highest percentage of growth among major container handling ports in the country. In 2012-13, KoPT handled 6,00,235 TEUs of containers as compared to 5,52,241 TEUs in 2011-12. During June, 2013, the MV Blue Moon created an all time record for Kolkata Dock System of highest one-leg parcel load by carrying 944 TEUs. She carried 489 TEUs in the return leg, thereby recording an exchange of 1,433 TEUs in one voyage.    

Commodities that contributed to the growth in export container cargo are rice, ferro silicon, wheat, jute and jute products, engineering products and cast iron goods. The increase in imports was brought about by electronic goods, machineries, chemicals and Nepal-borne general cargo.