Logistics firm TCI lines up Rs 250 cr capital expenditure for FY23

Logistics firm Transport Corporation of India is planning to line up a capital expenditure of around Rs 250 crore for the next fiscal, a top company executive has said.

Of the total capital expenditure (Capex), the company is expected to spend Rs 100-125 crore on ships and containers, the executive added.

The company also said that it is looking at around 12-15 per cent growth in topline and 20 per cent growth in the bottom-line.

"We are looking at a Capex of around 250 crore in the next financial year. Of this, about Rs 100-125 crore will be spent on ships and containers and, of course, some amount - may be another Rs 30-50 crore - on trucks. Then, we will also spend on building warehouses...which should be about another Rs 75 crore," TCI Managing Director Vineet Agarwal told PTI.

TCI (Transport Corporation of India), currently, has about 12-million sq ft of warehousing space under its management, which is expected to increase further as the company acquires more space going forward, he said.

Noting that TCI is well-positioned to capture the growth that's coming into the market, Agarwal said that even if there is not that much growth in some sectors, the company would still be able to grow because of its diversified operations.

"When you see the infrastructure growth that's happening, which is multimodal, our rail business or seaways business should get a flip in that. We see customer demand changing. The general cargo movement is anyways happening. Our freight business also does relatively well there. So, all of this means that we are quite well positioned to capture the growth that's coming into the market," Agarwal noted.

For the year going forward, we are looking at around a 12 -15 per cent increase in the topline and perhaps 20 per cent (growth) is in the bottom-line, he said.

The official also said the Prime Minister's Gati Shakti initiative is a "key programme as one of its objectives is to bring down the logistics cost, which will happen if there is a shift to multimodal transport".

"So, that multimodal shift has to happen to bring down the logistics cost. Also, the programme will be very important for us to synchronise all the efforts and the activity that is happening around building this multimodal infrastructure. Multimodal means that you are able to move seamlessly between different modes of transport. This should be seamless for the logistics provider as well as for the customer," he added.

According to Agarwal, it is estimated that in the next 5-10 years, electrification, which is currently at the last mile or city level, will increase. The use of alternative sources of fuel -- such as CNG, LNG and ultimately hydrogen -- will also rise.