With a portfolio of 15 domestic ports and terminals, three international ports and 27 per cent share in India’s cargo trade, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone is looking at making the country a hub for international shipping lines through its existing ports and strategic acquisitions.
On Friday in Thiruvananthapuram, the port operator flagged off commercial operations at Vizhinjam port with the arrival of a 300-metre container vessel operated by Maersk.
“We are looking at countries with an international trade route where we can make India as the hub,” Adani Ports Managing Director Karan Adani told businessline on the sidelines of the event. He was explaining the acquisition strategy of the company.
Adani Ports generates over ₹10,000 crore of fresh cash flows annually which increases, enabling it to have enough fire power to make investments. Edited excerpts from the interview.
Vizhinjam port will be a major transshipment hub and you expect to it to be an alternative to nearby ports such as Colombo. At the same time, you are also looking for overseas opportunities. What would be your acquisition strategy in this context?
Our focus is on Middle East, East Africa, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Vietnam, Cambodia. These are the places either with high growth through manufacturing or high population with good consumption growth. We are also looking at ports in the western part of Africa. We are looking at countries with an international trade route where we can make India as the hub.
How do you see the growth in your domestic and overseas ports portfolio?
We have a stated plan that by 2030 we will be able to handle 1 billion tonnes of cargo. We expect roughly 900 million tonnes of that coming in from existing Indian ports and the rest from international positions that we have.
Today, we are roughly 600 million tonnes of capacity and we are looking to expand at all our ports and we see enough growth opportunities across the board. Mundra, Hazira, Kattupalli, Krishnapatnam, Gangavaram, Damra and Vizhinjam — these are the seven ports that we will keep expanding up to 2030 at least.
And you are also growing your domestic portfolio organically and through acquisitions …
From our existing portfolio of ports, we see growth coming in organically and there is potential in terms of capacity expansion happening over there, as those pockets of regions keep increasing and growing we will be the natural gateway for that. Inorganically, we keep evaluating opportunities as and when it comes if they meet our thresholds. We see a lot of opportunities coming in from PPP (public private partnership) projects as the government keeps moving towards mega ports such as Vadhavan port (in Maharashtra), there will be opportunities for everyone.
You are also developing the area around your ports. Could you elaborate on that?
What we work towards is port-led industrial development. We have an industrial development happening outside Mundra port and similar thing we are looking at around Damra, Krishnapatnam ports. The idea is to bring in industries closer to the port to make them more competitive.