Essar Ports said on Tuesday that its Vizag Terminal is expected to grow rapidly this fiscal year, with over 1.3 million metric tonnes of cargo handled in April.
Cumulative cargo handling during April-December 2020 period stood at 36.5 MT.
"Essar Ports' business, which operates four terminals on the east and west coasts of India, has registered a 23.5 per cent growth in cargo volumes in FY 2019-20, with a throughput of 49.22 million tonne
Phase I of the terminal project will focus on the movement of passengers between Hazira in Surat and Mumbai. The company said it plans to extend the service to other coastal locations in Gujarat.
The company's first quarter cargo handling performance has been very strong and brought it closer to achieving its target throughput by the end of the current financial year.
Essar Ports is one of India's largest private sector port and terminal developers and operators.
The company said it has completed Rs 2,800 crore investment in terminal projects at Salaya in Gujarat and Vizag in Andhra Pradesh and its capacity is likely to go up to 90 MTPA (million tonne per annum) by month-end from the current 82 MTPA.
The CQ3 terminal at Paradip Port, operated by Essar Bulk Terminal Paradip Limited (EBTPL), handled 2.8 MMTPA till November this year as against 2.3 MMTPA during the same period a year ago, a senior Essar Ports official said.
"Essar Ports handled 17.35 million tonnes (MT) of cargo in the first half of 2017-18 fiscal, registering 19 per cent growth when compared to the cargo handling in the corresponding period in 2016-17," the company said in a statement.
After completion of the project, the loading capacity will increase to 120,000 tonnes per day (TPD) from 70,000 TPD, the company said in a statement.
"Total investment in the first phase could be in the region of about USD 500 million," Rajiv Agarwal, managing director and chief executive of Essar Ports, told PTI at a company-run facility here.
Essar Ports today said it has entered into a concession pact with Mozambique government to develop a new 20 MTPA coal terminal at Beira Port in the Southeast African country.
The Hazira Port Terminal is an all-weather, deep-water terminal located in the Gulf of Khambatt, Gujarat.
Essar Ports Ltd in consortium with Ultra LNG and Essar Shipping Ltd won the bid to build and operate the LNG receipt and storage facility for 30 years, sources privy to the development said. Petronet LNG Ltd and V Energy were other bidders for the project that would have a minimum guaranteed traffic of 0.2 MTPA.
"Third-party cargo handling has risen by 106 per cent to 1.03 MT in July-September compared to 0.5 MT in the same period a year-ago. Over the quarter, the various terminals of the company handled 209 ships as against 179 ships in the corresponding period last year," EPL said in a statement.
This was made possible through loading of bigger parcel sizes, faster turnaround of vessels and minimised berth stay durations. "This year, our terminal has not only berthed the biggest vessel for loading, but also recorded the highest ever loading rate at Paradip Port," Rajiv Agarwal, Managing Director, Essar Ports, said in a statement.
The company is investing Rs 800 crore to add 20 MMPTA at its Hazira Port in Surat to its existing 30 MMTPA capacity, Essar Ports Chief Executive Officer Rajiv Agarwal told reporters here.
The company is increasing capacity by 1,100 metres from the present 550 metres to meet rising demand.
Based on this approval, Essar Bulk Terminal Ltd, Hazira, with its design and capabilities will be able to handle a range of cargo for merchant customers, including dry bulk, liquid bulk, containers, etc, it said in a statement.
"The company expects cargo handling to increase to 85 MT in 2016-17 from 59 MT in 2015-16, a growth of more than 40 percent on a year-on-year basis," the Ruias-promoted firm said in a statement.
"This decrease can be attributed primarily to the base effect as 2014-15 had one mega offer of Rs 11,449 crore from Relay BV for United Spirits," Prime Database Managing Director Pranav Haldea said.
But the steel giants see a lot of problems. Tata Steel says the bankers don't have enough control over Essar Steel for it to go ahead with the deal, said CNBC-TV18's Latha Venkatesh, quoting sources. For JSW Steel, buying the Essar arm is tricky as it would involve other multi-corporate deals.
The exchanges said that the company has complied with the formalities for voluntary delisting of equity shares. Accordingly, trading in the equity shares of Essar Ports will be discontinued with effect from December 24, 2015, the exchanges said in separate circulars.
The boards of directors of Essar Ports and Essar Shipping had earlier approved a proposal they received from Essar Shipping & Logistics, one of the promoters, to delist shares from the BSE and NSE.