Capacity utilisation high; export-import gap cut: Concor

Below is the verbatim transcript of Anil K Gupta's interview with Nigel D'Souza and Sumaira Abidi on CNBC-TV18.

Nigel: One query that I have with regard to your numbers is what your volume growth guidance for FY14 is and what was it in the past quarter?

A: In Q3 we have grown at 13.3 percent on year-on-year basis in the total business including international handling which grew at 13.71 percent and domestic handling which grew 11.7 percent. Overall till the end of Q3 our growth in volumes is 10.87 percent comprising 10.24 percent of export-import and 14.06 percent of domestic.

Sumaira: There has been some recent interest in the stock, one is on account of the fact that you will be benefitting from higher export volumes. So could you take us through what was the kind of benefit that you saw from currency tailwinds in this quarter and also given the fact that the rupee is more or less stable now, what would be the outlook going forward?

A: This is true because we have been able to concentrate on exports-import gap, it was 22 percent last year in the first three quarters. This gap has come down to almost 4 percent that has helped us move exports and cut the repositioning costs. This has been a fact, imports grew only at around 2.5 percent while exports grew at around 17 percent. We hope that this trend will continue with the new markets and we are expecting around 11 percent growth overall in the year as against around 9 percent that we were expecting earlier.

Sumaira: What were your capacity utilization levels this quarter?

A: Capacity utilization is quite high, it is around 94 percent and there are places where we have more than 100 percent in some of the terminals. Some of the terminals are new terminals where lot of capacity is available which can be used. Overall it is 94 percent and we are adding to this capacity.

Nigel: There is lot of interest in this sector with regard to FDI coming into railways etc, railway budget in the next 10-12 days odd, is there any kind of trigger that you are viewing given that everything has been so strong now, any added trigger you see with regard to the upcoming events?

A: FII holding in my company is also now ranging at around 29.5 percent, I have got a limit of 30 percent. It was enhanced around eight years ago from 24 percent to 30 percent. So there is a strong interest and as you know we have been included as one of the 11 companies, 11 PSUs in the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), which is going to be created that would effectively imply our government ownership being diluted to the extent of 1.07 percent when it comes. So that also is a thing and interesting out of the 11 companies stock which is including the ETF, our stock is the only one which has given a return of about 18 percent to the investors in the last one year. These are all good signs, we look at it positively and we feel that with the strengthening of external sector of the economy and our trying to build in capacity will reap good results in the future.

Sumaira: Could you tell us what your current order book stands at and when can we expect meaningful orders from the dedicated freight corridor as well as the DMIC etc?

A: As far as DFC is concerned, it is going to be constructed parallel to the existing track which is there. What we are doing is we are making facilities, we have planned for making 15 facilities during the 12th five year plan out of which four facilities have fallen directly on the DFC. We are readying ourselves, we will be connecting to the existing track and as and when DFC comes we will be shifting to the DFC from the existing track. So we are already well ahead, DFC is also doing work at a good space, 92 percent of the land has been acquired and they are quite confident that by March 17, DFC western corridor will be in place. We hope to build our capacity much before that and so we will be actually in tune with the things to take benefit of DFC at right time.