Mormugao  Port occupies a prominent position as India's premier iron ore exporting port. A quantity of over 40.35 million tonnes of iron ore is exported in 2010-11 through this port mainly to China, Japan, Korea, European and Gulf countries. This accounts for about 46% of the total iron ore export from India.

During the financial year 2010-2011 the port handled a traffic of 50.02 million tonnes which is 9% of the total traffic of 569.92 million tonnes handled by all the twelve major ports of India. The traffic during the year consisted of 40.63 millions tonnes of iron ore including iron ore pellets, 6.93 millions tonnes of coal/coke and 1.47 million tonnes of petroleum products and other liquid cargo. The remaining traffic consisted of cargoes like fertilizer, alumina, limestone, containerized cargo, H.R.Steel Coil, Steel slabs, Sugar,Bauxite etc. The Mechanical Ore Handling Plant loaded 10.63 million tonnes of iron ore. The general cargo traffic was 7.93 million tonnes. A quantity of 1,82,222 tonnes (in 17602 TEUs) of containerized cargo was also handled at the port during the period.