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At a time when major ports have been struggling to expand their cargo traffic, Mundra Port & SEZ (Mundra) appears to have taken the fast track to growth.
Crossing the 50-million tonne mark in handling cargo for the fiscal ending March 2011, the private port expanded its volumes at a scorching 34 per cent/annum over the last five years.
The 50-million mark is also 25 per cent higher than the previous fiscal.
performance
Mundra has been consistently outperforming the average growth of major ports in the country.
According to data from the Indian Ports Association, traffic in major ports grew at a mere 1.1 per cent for the 11 months ending February 2011.
Growth in many of the major ports this fiscal was stalled by labour strikes, besides the perennial issue of congestion.
Container traffic has been a key driver of traffic for Mundra Port.
As of December 2010, the private port was next only to JNPT and Chennai port in terms of container traffic handled in FY-11.
Key drivers
Besides significant container traffic, Mundra's volumes have been driven by coal, a good part of it being the group's own traffic as well.
For the nine months ending December 2010, coal accounted for a good 25 per cent of total cargo, followed by crude oil at 13 per cent.
Coal volume can be expected to increase significantly with higher capacities coming up in Adani Power as well as the commissioning of Tata's Power's 4000 MW ultra mega power project in FY-12.
The latter in fact would have an exclusive coal terminal.
Similarly, crude oil volume too is set to go on account of two key developments: One, Bhatinda Refinery, the HPCL-Mittal Energy's joint venture is set to commission its nine million tonne a year Greenfield project in the current year.
Mundra's facility would provide an import terminal for the same.
Also, IOC's Panipat refinery had recently upgraded its capacity from 12 mt to 15 mt.
This too would provide a jump in the crude handled by the port.
With the additional volume expected, Mundra has set itself a target of 80 million ones in FY-12 and 100 million tonnes in FY-13.
If it does, the port could well be among the highest volumes ports in the country.
The stock markets gave the stock a thumbs-up with a 5 per cent rally on Monday to close at Rs 148.
The stock had fallen over 10 per cent post the budget after the government decided to levy minimum alternate tax on SEZ developers as well as units operating in SEZ.
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