Aging dredgers have dragged the performance of Dredging Corporation of India during the last financial year. There was significant erosion in net profit to Rs 13 crore for the year ended March 31 against Rs 40 crore in the previous year.
Revenue declined to Rs 504 crore (Rs 522 crore). The company has taken steps to procure dredgers to enhance the available capacity and replace the old dredgers, said DCI, a Mini-Ratna category-I public sector undertaking, in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The first of the three trailer suction hopper dredger of 5,500 cu m hopper capacity is scheduled to join the fleet in December. The remaining two dredgers will join the fleet in July next year and February 2014. The addition of these dredgers will help the company augment its capacity as well as meet the dredging commitments at various ports.
The acquisition will also enable the company to take up refurbishment of the existing aged dredgers. The company said that it plans to procure two more trailer suction hopper dredgers in the 12th Plan.
DCI helps ports to ensure continuous availability of the desired depths in the shipping channels. It also caters to the maintenance dredging requirements of ports, including Kolkata, Karwar and Mormugao.
According to the company’s Web site, DCI has ten trailer suction hopper dredgers; three cutter suction dredgers; two survey launches and one backhoe dredger.
The stock price of DCI on the BSE ended at Rs 252.10, up by Rs 0.05 or 0.02 per cent over the previous day’s closing price.