Gujarat Pipavav Port net doubles to Rs 89.5 cr in Jul-Sept

The Gujarat Pipavav Port today said its net profit jumped by two-fold to Rs 89.50 crore in the July-September quarter on volume growth and dividend income from its rail subsidiary.
"We received Rs 16 crore in dividend income from our rail subsidiary which is a public private partnership and the volumes increased by 19 per cent," its managing director Prakash Tulsiani told PTI.
The company, in which global port operator APM Terminals has a majority stake, had increased rates by 7 per cent in August last year, and the full quarter impact of the rate hike was visible in the July-September period, he said.

Total income increased to Rs 189.30 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2014, from Rs 133.60 crore for the same quarter last year.
On volumes front, Tulsiani said the container volumes grew 19 per cent over the last year to 194,000 standard units but declined by 4 per cent when compared with the preceding June quarter on a dip in exports.
The company also added two services calling at the port which pushed up the volumes, he said.

It witnessed a 23 per cent rise in bulk cargo handling during the quarter at 1.01 million tonnes, but Tulsiani said that this was an one-off quarter and the total bulk cargo handled by the port in the first nine months of the year is the same as last year.

"With bulk cargo, you may witness one quarter when there is a rise," he said, adding that the port continues to maintain its cautious approach on the bulk front.
It can be noted that the company had surprised all by announcing a withdrawal of capacity addition on the bulk front earlier this year. It is, however, going ahead with its planned expansion on the container front.
Tulsiani said that the company has embarked on the USD 100 million capacity expansion on container side and is targeting to finish it by March 2016.
The container handling capacity will increase to 1.35 million standard units from the current 850,000 TEUs, he said.

The port's liquid cargo handling capacity also started delivering revenues during the reporting quarter, he said, adding, it currently constitutes a small percentage of revenues.
Shares of the company jumped by 3.92 per cent to close at Rs 173.55 on the BSE today.