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Posted: 10/Aug/2007 at 4:02pm
Joyous July for JNPT
All terminals cross 1 lakh TEUs!
Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP) has handled 3.26 lakh TEUs during July 2007.
Container handling at JNPT’s own terminal (JNPCT) was 1.05 lakh TEUs, at Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal (NSICT), it was 1.19 lakh TEUs and at Gateway Terminals India (P) Ltd was 1.01 lakh TEUs.
For the first time, all the terminals at JNP have crossed the one-lakh TEU mark in a month.
The cumulative container traffic handled at JN Port during the current financial year (April to July 2007) is 12.68 lakh TEUs, which is about 23 per cent higher than that handled during the same period of 2006. The Port is expected to maintain the growth of above 20 per cent during the current fiscal.
At JN Port, a total of 534 ICD trains were handled during July, which is an all-time record since the inception of the Port. Out of these, 497 trains were provided by the Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) and 37 trains by the private rail operators. The ICD traffic at JN Port constitutes about 30 per cent of the total container traffic.
The dwell time for import containers delivered from JNPCT to various CFSs was 1.07 days against the free period of 3 days. The dwell time for import containers delivered from JNPCT to various ICD destinations by ICD trains was 3.49 days against the free period of 7 days provided by the Port.
The Port has been set a target of 48 million tonnes (including 3.6 million TEUs), but it is making all efforts to touch the 50-million tonne mark this fiscal.
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Posted: 14/Aug/2007 at 12:06pm
Concor plans to ultimately enter container shipping biz
Shipping lines such as APL and Maersk and terminal operators such as DP World have entered the business of running container trains
Mumbai: Having lost its monopoly over the rail haulage of cargo containers, the state-run Container Corp. of India Ltd (Concor) is looking at entering the container shipping business to complete the integration of the logistics chain, a Concor senior official said.
“Ultimately, we will enter the container shipping business. It may not happen immediately. But that is our goal,” Mukul Jain, group general manager, planning and development, at Concor said.
With private players given rights to run container trains, there is a lot of competition for rail container traffic in India. “How do we ensure that our trains are full? If we have our own container port and container shipping line, then the entire logistics chain is with us,” Jain said, explaining the rationale behind his firm’s plan to enter the highly capital-intensive container shipping business, dominated by big global players such as Maersk Line, CMA CGM, APL Ltd, Mediterranean Shipping Co. SA and Hapag Lloyd, etc.
Thirteen private entities including Reliance Infrastructure Engineers Pvt. Ltd, Adani Logistics Ltd, Boxtrans Logistics (India) Services Pvt. Ltd, Gateway Rail Freight Pvt. Ltd, Hind Terminals Pvt. Ltd, MSC Agency (India) Pvt. Ltd, India Infrastructure & Logistics Pvt. Ltd (a subsidiary of APL) and Pipavav Railway Corp. Ltd, among others, have secured rights to run container trains after Parliament approved a proposal in 2005 to privatize rail freight services.
Concor, which is 63% owned by the government, has already made a foray into the container port business by taking a 26% stake in Gateway Terminals India Pvt. Ltd, which runs one of the three container handling terminals at India’s biggest container port, the Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Navi Mumbai. APM Terminals, the port operating division of the Danish shipping and oil conglomerate AP Moller-Maersk A/S, holds a 74% stake in Gateway, which began operations in 2006.
It also has a 15% stake in India Gateway Terminal Pvt. Ltd, which is developing the international container trans-shipment terminal at Vallarpadam in the Centre-owned Cochin port. The Dubai government-owned DP World, the world’s third largest container port operator, holds 80% stake in India Gateway Terminal.
Concor has also bid for developing a Rs2,000 crore greenfield port at Maroli in Gujarat. It has bid for the Maroli port project in a consortium that includes India’s largest shipping firm, the state-run Shipping Corp. of India and Hind Terminals Pvt. Ltd (a subsidiary of the Sharaf Group of the United Arab Emirates).
Shipping lines such as APL and Maersk and terminal operators such as DP World have entered the business of running container trains. “We are doing the opposite by entering the container shipping business,” Concor’s Jain said.
The firm will enter the shipping business only after gaining sufficient expertise in the container port business, he noted.
Jain said Concor also proposed to open offices abroad as part of the integration strategy. “This will also help us in capturing the cargo from the origin point itself,” he said.
In the 12 months till March, Concor moved 1.715 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) from various Indian ports to inland destinations and back. A TEU is the standard size of a container and is a common measure of capacity in the container business.
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Posted: 14/Aug/2007 at 12:27pm
Fidelity pays Rs 52.6 cr for 7% stake in TCI
New Delhi, Aug 13 Fidelity Investments International has picked up close to seven per cent equity in the supply chain and logistics services company, Transport Corporation of India (TCI) for Rs 52.625 crore.
The company plans to expand and consolidate its supply chain and logistics business, both nationally and globally. Mr D.P. Agarwal, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, TCI, stated: “The objective behind the issuance of equity shares is to partly meet the capex plans of the company and improve stakeholders’ valuations.”
According to a press release issued here today, TCI will issue equity shares to Fidelity Investments International, a foreign institutional investor, at a price of Rs 105.25 per share of face value of Rs 2 each, in cash aggregating to Rs 52.625 crore, in accordance with the guidelines for preferential issue issued by SEBI. When contacted, company representatives said Fidelity has acquired about seven per cent in the firm.
With this, the FII’s stake in the company would be close to 10 per cent of paid-up equity, said the release. “Out of our total capex plan of Rs 440 crore, we would be spending Rs 340 crore over three years starting 2007-08, for investment in warehousing, fleet upgradation and expansion, shipping and IT systems. The company has already invested Rs 100 crore in 2006-07 fiscal and is looking at investing Rs 200 crore in the current fiscal,” he further added.
TCI, with revenues of over Rs 1,200 crore, has a network of over 1,100 company owned offices.
MUMBAI: Sical Logistics Ltd has acquired a cutter suction dredger named Sical PortoFino for $24.92 million.
The acquisition was funded by company's foreign currency convertible bonds issue in 2006 and is estimated to earn revenue of $9.8 million annually. The company plans to acquire more of cutter suction and trailer suction hopper dredgers.
The dredger will be deployed in the Chinese market. It can dredge up to a depth of 25 meters and has a production capacity of 3000 cubic meter per hour.
At 11:33 AM, Sical Logistics share was at Rs 231.55, down 4.20% or Rs 10.15 on the BSE from its previous close.
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Posted: 23/Aug/2007 at 1:53pm
NEW WAGON POLICY TO INVOLVE PRIVATE PLAYERS
PPP model mooted to upgrade wagons to global standards; under new law customers may be allowed to take wagons on lease instead of buying outright
New Delhi: Indian Railways is finalising a new policy to bring about state-of-the-art technology in wagon manufacturing and maintenance and allow private players to procure wagons on lease without investing in it.
The new wagon policy, to be announced soon, is a step towards opening up of the wagon sector to private sector, said a senior railway ministry official.
The existing wagons were designed 25 years ago. They have become outdated and there is a need to change it to meet the global standard, said the official.
Currently, customers have to buy their own wagons for carrying goods under the wagon investment scheme. “If a person wants to carry goods on a truck, he does not have to invest in a truck. Then, why should he invest in wagons if he wants to carry it on train?” said the official.
The policy would allow private players to invest in special kinds of wagons and lease them to customers of railways. Till now, it was only railways which can lease out wagons.
“Once the wagon sector is opened up to private players, it would bring new design and new technology to the wagon manufacturing and maintenance,” said the official.
“There is a need for new design of wagons for transportation of specific commodities like cement, iron ore which are the largest items carried by railways today. However, the railways would not use its capital for these new wagons though the design has to be approved by it”.
“Our wagons and containers are not equipped to carry large numbers of vehicles like in Europe or the US. That is why, the autmobile industry is still depending upon the road transport for its business. The automobile industry is growing at a fast pace and our containers and wagons have to be redesigned to meet the challenge,“ said the official.
Railways hope that once wagon manufacturing and leasing is opened up to public private participation mode, the wagon investors would bring latest technology to the sector.
It has also been proposed to increase the axle load of freight trains to 32.5 tonnes. The move will help wagons increase their gross weight carrying capacity to 130 tonnes from the present 91 tonnes.
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Posted: 25/Aug/2007 at 10:18pm
RIL enters strategic partnership with Concor
NEW DELHI: Reliance Industries (RIL) is entering into a strategic alliance with the Container Corporation of India (Concor), India’s largest container train operator.
Both entities are already in advanced stages of talks and an MoU detailing the agreement is expected to be announced shortly. Under this strategic partnership, RIL will have access to several infrastructural facilities of Concor, which includes almost 60 terminals all over the country.
According to sources familiar with these talks, RIL intends to utilise these facilities as key warehousing points for its mega retailing venture—Reliance Retail. In addition, Concor will also provide multi-modal connectivity to RIL, through its rail and road network, for the movement of both the bulk commodities and other imports, sourced for its retail venture.
“The process of dialogue has reached an advanced stage and we should be announcing the detailed working agreements soon now,” said a senior Concor official requesting anonymity. The official, however, refused to offer more details on this alliance.
According to sources close to the development, RIL is contemplating to operate this venture through its supply chain arm Reliance Logistics. Earlier, RIL had been toying with the idea of running its own trains on the Indian Railways system by purchasing the container train licence, but it seems that the move has been put on the back burner. And RIL has since decided to team up with Concor.
Ever since its inception, Reliance Logistics has been a silent entity, with concentration entirely in the transport of RIL’s oil venture. In a recent move that was widely speculated, it has started playing a key role in firming up the back end of Reliance Retail operations.
In fact, the entity, over the last couple of months has also been aggressively hiring personnel, from the road transportation sector to build up its own road transport network, which would be crucial to its retail operations.
“Reliance Logistics has been hiring people from the 3PL (Third Party Logistics) service providers to set up a road network division. Building that division is very crucial to our retail operations,” said a senior Reliance Retail official, who requested anonymity.
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Posted: 27/Aug/2007 at 11:46am
RIL plans entry into container trains biz
The conglomerate’s logistics arm plans to either obtain a licence or tie up with an entity that already has one
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), controlled and managed by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, is diversifying into the business of running container trains in an attempt to tap the growing market for moving cargo in the world’s second fastest growing major economy.
Reliance Logistics Ltd, an arm of RIL, plans to buy railway wagons to serve the needs of its parent’s various businesses including retail and to also serve other companies. “We will run container trains on our own by taking a licence from the railway ministry or tie up with an entity that has already secured a licence,” said an RIL executive familiar with the matter who did not wish to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media. Yogesh Kundra, vice-president, Reliance Logistics, declined comment on the issue.
According to the executive at the company, Reliance Logistics will finalize its plans regarding the container trains by the time the logistics park at Rewas port is ready.
Reliance Industries is part of the consortium developing this port. The all-weather port with a deep draught (usually a depth of more than 16m), located just 10km away from India’s busiest container port, the Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai, is being implemented in three phases with phase I costing approximately Rs4,000 crore.
In two rounds of bidding conducted by the railway ministry since 2005, 13 private operators, including the Anil Ambani-run Reliance Infrastructure Engineers Pvt. Ltd and two state-owned firms—Container Corporation of India Ltd (Concor) and Krishak Bharati Cooperative Ltd—have received licences to run container trains between various ports and inland locations in the country.
Some firms, such as India Infrastructure & Logistics Pvt. Ltd, Boxtrans Logistics (India) Services Pvt. Ltd, Hind Terminals Pvt. Ltd, Gateway Rail Freight Pvt. Ltd and Innovative B2B Logistics Solution Pvt. Ltd, have begun operations.
RIL did not apply for a licence to operate container trains in the first two rounds of bidding, but it will look at this option in the next round, the executive said.
He claimed that the company was also approached by an existing licence holder, Delhi Assam Roadways Corp. Ltd, to collaborate in running container trains.
Executives at Delhi Assam Roadways could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday.
Reliance Industries has a joint venture with Concor, christened Infinite Logistics Solutions Pvt. Ltd, to move the raw materials it requires and finished goods between various places. “We have formed a joint venture company with Reliance which will start operating soon,” confirmed P. Alli Rani, executive director, finance, at Concor. Reliance Logistics will hold a 51% stake in the joint venture with Concor holding the balance.
The Reliance executive said the company thinks it makes business sense to operate its own container trains once the company’s retail business, Reliance Retail Ltd, moves up a gear in a year or two. “Together with other businesses, we will have more than 10 lakh tonnes of cargo to move to various parts of the country,” he added. It is investing up to Rs25,000 crore to set up retail stores across the country, spanning various formats.
RIL isn’t the only company interested in running container trains. French firm CMA-CGM that runs the world’s third biggest container shipping line is also exploring ways to enter the business.
The Marseille-based firm said it had held talks with the Adani Group to buy a stake in Adani Logistics Ltd that holds a licence to run container trains. “We did have a conversation with the Adani Group,” said Omar Sait, general manager and the head of CMA-CGM’s Indian unit.
But the company is yet to decide on its strategy.
If it chooses not to pick up a stake in Adani Logistics, CMA-CGM could pick up a licence in the next round of bidding. Bids to run container trains will now be an annual feature.
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Posted: 29/Aug/2007 at 10:51pm
Adani Group to invest Rs 1,260 cr in container trains, rail-linked ICDs
Container depots planned at 10 places across the country
Ahmedabad, Aug. 28 The Adani Group would invest nearly Rs 1,260 crore to operate container trains, for which it has obtained a licence from the Railways, and establish rail-linked inland container depots (ICDs) at 10 places across the country for domestic and international trade.
While the group company Inland Conware Private Ltd (ICPL) would invest nearly Rs 938 crore in ICDs, Adani Logistics Ltd (ALL) would invest Rs 322 crore in container trains, company sources told Business Line here .
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