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Essar Ports Ltd is exploring the possibility of setting up four Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals in joint ventures with other companies. The company wants to explore the business mainly because it already has LNG cargo and customer tie-ups, said Rajiv Agarwal, CEO and Managing Director, Essar Ports.
Agarwal was interacting with media persons at its Visakhapatnam facility, earlier this week.
Essar Ports is majorly involved in the development and operations of ports and terminals for handling liquid, dry bulk, break bulk and general cargo. On the West coast, it has operational terminals at Hazira and Salaya in Gujarat. On the East coast, it is present at Visakhapatnam and Paradip.
He said a number of LNG terminal projects have been announced by the Centre, which are in different stages of planning. LNG terminals will help the Essar Group in reducing input costs. LNG could also be marketed to other companies in the private sector.
Agarwal said the company had a debt of about ₹2,500 crore and an EBITDA of ₹1,000 crore. The debt will rise to ₹3,000 crore by end of the year, and next year, the EBITDA will rise to about ₹1,300 crore. Therefore, the company is in a comfortable financial position, and its debt-to-equity ratio is also very sound.
He also announced that Essar Ports plans to expand its iron ore-handling capacity at Visakhapatnam terminal (outer harbour) from 12.5 MMTPA to 23 MMTPA with an investment of ₹830 crore.
The ore-handling facility is operated through Essar Vizag Terminals Ltd (EVTL).
EVTL took over the iron ore-handling project in May 2015 on a design-build-finance-operate-transfer (DBFOT) basis for a period of 30 years from Visakhapatnam Port. Since then, the company has ramped up the iron ore-loading capacity of the terminal from 25,000 TPD (tonnes per day) to 70,000 TPD.
After the completion of the upgradation-cum-modernisation project, the loading capacity will further increase to 120,000 TPD, and the facility will be able to berth vessels of up to 200,000 DWT, with a draft of 18 metres, on the outer harbour.
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