The Adani Group’s flagship Mundra Port has been able to oust long-time market leader Nhava Sheva/JNPT as India’s top container handler.
But a close look at port data indicates that transshipment handling remains a major contributor to Mundra’s stronger growth. In July, transshipment volumes handled by Adani’s four terminals in Mundra stood at 167,363 TEU, making up 35% of the total 466,237 TEU shipped in/out of them, according to exclusive data obtained by Container News.
Between April and July, transshipment movement hit 574,900 TEU, out of 1.84 million TEU handled by the four terminals.
By contrast, the five container terminals at Nhava Sheva/JNPT together saw just 38,772 TEU of transshipment loads in the same four-month period.
The private conglomerate (APSEZ) has ongoing strategic partnerships with two of the world’s largest container carriers, Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC) and CMA CGM, for terminal operations at Mundra – known as Adani International Container Terminal (AICTPL) and Adani CMA Mundra Terminal (ACMTPL), respectively — and such large-scale transshipment gains are rooted in increasing hub activity by these carriers there.
The harbour also includes a terminal operated by DP World, named Mundra International Container Terminal (MICT).
“Mundra continues to be the largest container handling port with 1.65 million TEUs versus 1.48 million TEUs managed by JNPT during the quarter,” APSEZ noted, announcing the April-June quarter performance results.
“Q1 FY23 has been the strongest quarter in APSEZ’s history, with a record cargo volume and highest ever quarterly EBITDA. This is an 11% jump on a robust performance in the corresponding quarter last year that witnessed the post-Covid demand surge,” said Adani Group CEO Karan Adani. “The company continued this strong performance in July and recorded 100 MMT of cargo through-put in the initial 99 days of FY23, a feat never achieved before.”
Adani went on to add, “Our strategy of connecting port gate to customer gate through an integrated utility model is starting to yield results. APSEZ remains committed to its philosophy of ensuring sustainable growth in partnership with our key stakeholders.”
Mundra’s consolidated container traffic for the fiscal year 2021-22, which ended on 31 March, soared 15% year-over-year to 6.52 million TEUs.
As regional competition heats up, Nhava Sheva/JNPT is fighting hard to retain its market share and it remains to be seen how the recent privatisation of under-utilised port-owned cargo berths, awarded to a joint venture consortium of CMA CGM and Mumbai-based JM Baxi Group, will play out on that front.
Jenny Daniel
India correspondent
Contact email: j.daniel@container-news.com
