Krishnapatnam Port expects 50% growth this year

Krishnapatnam Port Company Ltd (KPCL) expects revenue to grow at least 50 per cent this fiscal, mainly driven by the zooming container business.

The company, which runs Krishnapatnam deepwater port in the Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh, had reported a revenue of ₹1,200 crore in 2013-14, up from ₹650 crore in the previous year.

KPCL’s container business, which completed one year of operation, is expected to nearly double this year, while the cargo business is also set to see new heights with more items being added to the port list.

After taking journalists for a tour of the port, the top management outlined the company’s new initiatives recently.

The trip coincided with the flagging off of a direct container ship, INS Kamal of Shipping Corporation of India, from Krishnapatnam Port to Yangon in Myanmar. The ship has added to two-way trade volumes and fits into the country’s Look East policy.

“The ability of the port to handle very large bulk carriers and the huge port infrastructure created, including a railway line, have made a big difference to the cargo business in the eastern India,” Chitta Sasidhar, Managing Director of KPCL, said.

The company, part of the diversified CVR Group, handled about 35 million tonnes (mt) of cargo during 2014-15, up from 21 mt in the year before. The container terminal has handled 58,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in its first year of operation.

The port also contributes about ₹1,600 crore to the customs and excise and ₹1,500 crore to the Railways last year.

There is no immediate funding requirement for the port, but the company may yet consider an initial public offering next year, depending on market conditions, Sasidhar said. Spread over 6,500 acres, the port has container capacity to handle about 1.2 million TEUs. The company invested over ₹1,200 crore in the phase one of the port and about ₹4,800 crore in the phase II, which is now nearing completion. There is huge capacity for growth both in handling the cargo and containers.

Coal and iron ore have been two of the major imports from the port so far. With the port close to at least six major thermal power projects, several of them fully dependent on imported coal, the coal imports are likely to go up, Sasidhar said.

Lately, some South Indian cement makers have begun exports.

Sasidhar said the Group is the single largest port development contractor associated with several ports.

“We are awaiting land allotment to take up the Machilipatnam port project. This would become another important port once completed as it would be located close to the proposed capital city of Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh.”

(The writer was at the Krishnapatnam Port on the invitation of the company.)