JSW Infrastructure, India’s second biggest port operator by volumes, is keen to explore port privatisation opportunities being opened up by the government and is also exploring the mega transhipment port project at Galathea Bay in the Great Nicobar Island, its joint managing director said in a recent interview.
“The way the government is opening up opportunities in India is enormous. And as the second largest port company in India with a strong balance sheet and aptitude to grow in this sector, we would look at every big opportunity in the ports sector,” Arun Maheshwari, also the CEO of JSW Infra, told ET.
“We are exploring it (Galathea) but aren’t 100% sure whether we will go ahead with it,” he added.
JSW Infrastructure is reportedly among 10 companies, including Dutch dredging contractor Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V, Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd, Container Corporation of India Ltd and Essar Ports Ltd, that have submitted expressions of interest for the project.
TK Ramachandran, secretary the Ministry of Shipping, recently told ET that the project would be worth Rs 65,000-85,000 crore.
JSW Infrastructure operates nine state port concessions located on the west and east coasts of India.
The company that gets almost its entire business from the bulk segment plans to expand its container and liquid portfolios, such that non-bulk cargo accounts for a third of its revenues in the coming years.
“We are recent entrants into the container and liquid segments. We got into the container segment only two years back,” said Maheshwari, adding the container segment currently accounts for just 2% of its volumes.
He added the company will look to partner with big shipping lines in the container segment. It may also, in future, plan to set up its own container port terminal.
“That is the bigger plan,” said Maheshwari.
On November 3, the company said it entered into the container train operations business by acquiring the container train operator (CTO) licence of Sical Multimodal and Rail Transport Limited from Pristine Logistics & InfraprojectsPvt Ltd.
It also signed a share purchase agreement with MPT Commodities Ltd (part of the MercuriaGroup, Switzerland), to acquire a liquid storage facility of 465,000 cubic meters capacity at the Fujairah Port, UAE for $187 million.
“It (Fujairah) was a very well-thought-out deal. It’s part of our strategy to get into diversified product portfolios. What better start can we have in the liquid segment than in its biggest market? Fujairah is one of three biggest oil tankerage terminals in the world. This will give us the experience and expertise to spread our wings much more,” he said.
In February, the company emerged as the sole bidder for the global tender floated by Karnataka Maritime Board for the development of an all-weather deep water greenfield port at Keni-Belekeri in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka on a design, build, finance, operate, transfer (DBFOT) model.
A captive jetty project proposed near the group’s steel plant at Jatadhari Muhan, Odisha also received an environmental clearance last year.
Maheswari said the company is very closely looking at opportunities in green hydrogen projects and “will take a couple of months to decide where we are on this”.
“Does it make sense and does it make for a value accretive opportunity? We have to take that call because the capex in these projects is very high,” he said.
In October, the government identified ports at Kandla, Paradip and Tuticorin as hubs for green hydrogen, green ammonia and green methanol in the next seven years.
JSW Infrastructure currently receives 62% of its business from captive sources and the rest from third parties. Maheshwari said he aims for this split to be 50:50 in the next 5-7 years.
