Adani Ports closes FY23 with 9% higher cargo at 339 million metric tonnes

India’s largest private port operator Adani Ports and Special Economic Zones (APSEZ) ended the financial year 2022-23 with 339 million metric tonnes (mmt) of cargo, which is 9 per cent higher than the previous financial year.

While the volumes are the highest-ever for the Adani Group company, they fall slightly short of its guidance of 350-360 mmt, which the company had targeted after its October-December quarter results.

On a monthly basis, March was the first month in the previous fiscal since July that APSEZ’s cargo volumes breached 30 mmt (32 mmt). Cargo across state-owned Indian ports had been seeing stagnant volumes over the third quarter of the fiscal, owing to geopolitical tensions and slow international trade.

Meanwhile, volumes in container cargo grew by 5 per cent amid international trade volatility, and the overall growth was largely spearheaded through bulk cargo, which grew at 62 per cent in FY23.

“The overall container volumes handled by APSEZ in India jumped to Rs 8.6 MTEUs (million twenty-foot equivalent units), including Rs 6.6 MTEUs at Mundra alone. It continues to be India’s largest seaport with Rs 155 MMT of total cargo handled during the year,” the Gautam Adani-led company said on Wednesday.

“The APSEZ’s flagship port, Mundra, is outpacing all its closest rivals and continues to be the largest port in the nation in terms of volumes handled. Mundra’s infrastructure meets world standards and provides service levels on par with those of its global competitors, making it India’s gateway for container goods,” Karan Adani, Chief Executive Officer of APSEZ said.

Container rakes handled by the logistics arm of the company crossed 500,000 TEUs in the previous fiscal, showing a growth of 24 per cent. The company said that it achieved milestones in FY23 in key metrics such as number of ships docked (6,573), rakes serviced (40,482), and the trucks, trailers and tankers handled (48,89,941).

APSEZ has also been able to benefit from the shift away from roadways in movement of goods. Roll-on roll-off (RoRo) cargo refers to vehicles plying on roadways being loaded entirely on to trains or cargo vessels and ferries — a mode seeing increased preference with industry.

“It (Mundra Port) handled the highest ever RO-RO volume of 2.09 lakh cars in this financial year as compared to previous high of 1.87 lakh. This rise is the result of the confidence shown by the long-time customer Maruti Suzuki India Limited,” the company said.

Meanwhile, the central government is also working on a reworked Ro-Ro policy for regulation and fare fixation, in wake of the increased demand for the mode and coastal shipping.

On the other hand, India’s 12 major ports recorded a combined cargo of 795 mmt in the previous financial year, recording a growth of 10.4 per cent over the previous year. The Centre has been working on increasing capacity and boosting performance benchmarks to make state-owned ports competitive against private ports, where the former had been losing market share over the past years.