APSEZ, part of the vast Adani Group, has posted a rise of 21% in earnings, and 8% in cargo tonnage, year-on-year for the first quarter of the new financial year (2024-25). The investment community has taken note of promising figures. Two of India’s biggest financial ratings agencies, CARE and ICRA, upgraded APSEZ’s credit rating to ‘AAA’. internationally, S&P (formerly Standard and Poor’s) upgraded their credit rating outlook to “Positive” from “Stable”, driven by improving scale and diversification.
New port operations at home and abroad
The good figures coincide with the arrival of the first mothership at the Vizhinjam transhipment port, in Kerela, in the southwest of the country. Vizhinjam, delivered as a turn-key project by ZPMC, is India’s first semi-automated terminal. “FY25 has begun on a strong note for us with a stellar performance on both financial and growth fronts,” said Mr Ashwani Gupta, the chief executive.
The contacts and concessions signed gave the company additional reason for cheer. APSEZ told stakeholders that they have signed a 30-year concession agreement with the Tanzania Ports Authority to operate and manage Container Terminal 2 at the Dar es Salaam Port. CT2, with four berths, has an annual cargo handling capacity of 1 million TEUs and managed 0.82 million TEU in 2023.
Contracts and concessions
Two letters of intent have been lodged with the company, providing additional potential for growth in the coming years. APSEZ is set to take a 30-year concession for the development, operation and maintenance of Berth No. 13 at Deendayal Port, Gujarat state, in the far northwest of India. The operator has also received an LOI for five years of operations and management of the container facility at Netaji Subhas Dock at Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Kolkata. Netaji Subhas Dock is the largest container terminal on the east coast of India and handled 0.63 million TEUs in FY2023-24, according to the company. “APSEZ’s presence at the port will drive synergies with upcoming transhipment hubs at Vizhinjam and Colombo.” said a company statement.
APSEZ also grew rail freight traffic and storage capacity. In the Indian format, the reported number of train movements was up marginally from 127 to 131 rakes for the comparable quarter. Figures supplied by the company report that warehousing capacity increased significantly to 2.9 million sq. ft. with the addition at Palwal [south of New Delhi] of 2.4 million sq. ft as of FY24 end. Agrisilo capacity was at 1.2 MMT and is expected to increase to 4 MMT on completion of projects already underway. “On the growth front, we won two new port concessions and a port O&M contract,” said Ashwani Gupta. “We are proud that four of our ports featured in World Bank’s Container Port Performance Index 2023,” he added, noting the quartet to be Mundra, Kattupalli, Hazira, and Krishnapatnam. The index benchmarks ports globally across multiple parameters including productivity, efficiency and reliability.
