Essar Ports eyes V shaped recovery

(Posted on 07/07/20)

The green shoots of recovery, post COVID-19 lockdown are being seen by Essar Ports due to a pickup in activity in Indian steel, power and mining sectors.

Essar Ports specializes in development and operations of ports and terminals for handling dry bulk, break bulk, liquid and general cargo. It is one of the largest private sector port operators in India in terms of capacity and throughput.

Between March and May this year, the longest lockdown in the world was imposed across India to check the spread of COVID-19. Business operations came to a halt and all industries were affected. In the first quarter of FY2020-21, businesses have been on the move to optimize, reinvent and remain relevant so they could return to old performance levels.

At Essar Ports, there was a dip in cargo handling in April 2020 on account of dwindling production of its key customers—mainly power and steel companies. However, during Q1 FY21, which is the quarter ending 30 June 2020, Essar Ports recorded an impressive cargo handling of 11.23 million tonnes (MT), with June 2020 cargo growing by 75% compared to the April tonnage.

“Essar Ports takes pride in manifesting the honourable PM’s dream of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat. In June 2020, Unlock#1 was unleashed across the country, and the economy immediately started displaying green shoots of recovery. Our terminals, which remained operational despite challenges faced through the successive phases of the lockdown, have clocked an impressive cargo handling of 11.23 MT. We are well placed and prepared to ensure the nation’s economic engines are up and running in the most efficient manner,” said Mr Rajiv Agarwal, CEO & MD, Essar Ports.

Essar Ports has four operational terminals in India—one each in Hazira and Salaya (both in Gujarat) on the west coast, and in Visakhapatnam and Paradip on the east coast. The current operational capacity of the port terminals in India is 110 MTPA.