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The buoyancy of the Indian economy is reflected in very positive results recently posted by two of the country’s leading ports groups
Essar Ports has seen an increase of over 35% in overall cargo handling volumes in the second quarter of 2016-17, ending September 30th 2016, compared to the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal year. The group handled 18.27 million tonnes against 13.55 million tonnes in the same period of last year. Third party cargo handling was up by over 105%, to 1.03 million tonnes, while the number of ships handled, 209 vessels, jumped by 17%.
Commenting on the performance, Rajiv Agarwal, managing director, Essar Ports, said, “Our performance is a reflection of the efficient operations at all our ports and faster vessel turnaround times. We are gradually enhancing our capacity utilisation, which is backed by the improved operational performance of our anchor customers.”
The company’s performance for the first six months of the 2016-17 financial year similarly demonstrated a significant improvement. The volume of cargo handled was up by 33%, at 35.37 million tonnes, compared to the 26.54 million tonnes moved in the first half of 2015-16, and the amount of third party cargo handled jumped by 230%, to 1.98 million tonnes.
Essar Ports is one of the largest port companies of India, with a current capacity of 140 million tonnes a year. Its capacity is being expanded to 194 million tonnes annually over the next few years.
Meanwhile, Adani Port’s cargo throughput increased by 17% in the second quarter to 43 million tonnes, up from 36 million tonnes in the same quarter of the year before. Container volumes increased by 30% on a year-on-year basis. For the half year period, Adani Ports handled a total of 85 million tonnes, a rise of 12%, with container throughput up 28 % compared with the first half of 2015-16
Karan Adani, chief executive officer of Adani Ports, said, “Healthy growth in cargo volumes, operational efficiencies and our efforts to change the mix of bulk cargo beyond coal has enabled us to report all-round growth in our financial numbers. With our port to hinterland connectivity further improving we aim to be truly a fully integrated player providing end to end service to our customers. This will result in higher volume and financial growth.”
