See logistics gaining from coastal industries: Allcargo

The petroleum products, the coal, the iron ore which India imports in large quantities are to be reserved for the Indian shipping companies. The tonnages owned by the shipping companies and flagged in India; that is one big push for the industry.

Secondly, Sagarmala definitely is something where the government is thinking about how to connect the ports more efficiently and create the port infrastructure to develop more industries so that the industry becomes more competitive especially for the export and import segment. This also links to the Make in India project, to make it more competitive for the industries to setup near the ports.

Sagarmala is to develop more ports, develop more linkages to the ports throughout the country both in terms of roads and also the rail infrastructure.

Develop the transshipment centers in some of the main ports – how the transshipment can happen more effectively and more efficiently and as I said to create the whole infrastructure for developing more industries.

The logistics industry is also likely to gain a lot from the coastal business which is now being incentivised to the shippers who wants to use the coast as a route for transportation which is one of the most efficient and most effective way of moving the goods between the various ports in the country and there is a huge opportunity there.

Together with the coastal shipping we also have a big benefit that will come from the inland waterways. About 100 new inland waterways are likely to be announced in the very near future. That should also help the entire industry quite a bit. On top of that, renewable energy is one of the major focus.

A lot of new sites are being developed for implementing the third generation windmills. Solar is becoming more and more cost effective. So, all these projects also need lot of logistics and transportation both by sea, by road and also by the coast.

Thirdly, the government has also announced huge spending on the infrastructure particularly on the power sector. There are four ultra megawatt power plants on a plug and play basis which will be awarded to the new private players.

When I say plug and play all the permissions will be pre-granted for the companies to bid for them and logistic is another major gainer.

On top of all that we also have the nuclear energy, this is going to be another big push in the years to come. Added to that is the e-commerce which is another major segment that is currently being promoted and so, overall it is good few years ahead for the logistic industry. Obviously, Allcargo is one of the leading players in this market and with global presence we are likely to capitalise a lot on these opportunities in the years to come.

Q: You spoke about Sagarmala being better for the company and I understand that 80-90 percent of your revenues come from the port-based model. You currently have four ships and so, do you plan to add more ships to benefit from this?

A: Yes, one of our key focus and thrust area is to grow in that business and that will be a huge opportunity in the country. We are going to be very cautious.

We are going project by project, customer by customer and make those investments at the right time. Coastal shipping and inland waterways is going to be one of our focus areas.

Q: You also spoke about e-commerce being a big focus area. In fact the last time you spoke to us you said that you will come out with the comprehensive policy on e-commerce so is there any update on that?

A: It is currently work in progress. We don’t want to rush into any business without doing a proper study, proper analysis. What are the opportunities we have in the market we as a company have grown both organically and inorganically.

We continue to look at opportunities where we could build the business together with adding companies that are specialist in this area by acquisitions. We continuously look at all the opportunities that present themselves and try making a good business out of these opportunities.