Essar Ports announced Thursday that its throughput soared by 20 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of FY2020. From October through December, the port operator handled 14 million tonnes at all of its facilities across India.
Essar Ports is a leading private sector terminal operator in India, with four terminals and a combined 110 million tonnes per annum of nameplate capacity – about five percent of the nation’s total. Its main strength is in bulk cargo, and with new investments in advanced cargo handling infrastructure, Essar says that it is poised to double capacity. The company expects to see growth in the range of 50 percent year-on-year for FY2020 alone.
“[A] significant boost in hinterland industry consumption has been the key growth driver. Largely the growth has been on account of our terminals in Salaya (west coast) and Vizag Port (east coast),” said Essar Ports CEO Rajiv Agarwal in a statement. “Our continuous focus on increasing the capacity of handling through upgradation and mechanization, and driving operational efficiencies, has helped in recording strong growth. We are committed to delivering world-class services and our focus is to ensure seamless continuity in services on a sustainable basis.”
In December, Essar Port’s Hazira terminal handled more than two million tonnes of cargo for AM/NS India, a joint venture which purchased Essar Steel out of insolvency proceedings late last year. With the expansions that Essar Ports has recently undertaken at the Hazira terminal, it is equipped to handle increased volumes, the company said. New customer additions at Salaya, Vizag and Hazira have also helped to lift volumes.
Essar is also developing a 20 million tonne per year coal berth at Beira, Mozambique, which could substantially boost Mozambican coking coal exports to India. The compay has signed a 30-year concession agreement with the Mozambican government to develop the port as a public-private partnership. Relative to Australia, which currently supplies the overwhelming majority of India’s coking coal, Mozambique is substantially closer to the subcontinent – giving a shipping cost advantage. Beira is the closest port to Mozambique’s inland coal fields.
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