Page 7 - Logistics Sector

Market share, margin gain hopes could drive further gains in Delhivery

The key takeaway in the quarter was the 19 per cent y-o-y growth in express parcel volumes and a 14 per cent rise in revenues of the segment

Lessons from a load carrier

With the Indian Army placing orders for a fresh batch of Stallion trucks, there is an urgent need to simplify military logistics to reduce cost

Tempe-controlled logistics services provider Snowman Q1 PAT at Rs 4 cr

Integrated temperature-controlled logistics services provider Snowman Logistics on Wednesday said its Profit After Tax (PAT) doubled to Rs 3.89 crore in June quarter 2023-24. The company's PAT stood at Rs 1.89 crore during the first quarter of FY23, Snowman Logistics said in a statement. The company also announced around Rs 200 crore capex to be spent over the next 24 months, both from its internal accruals and debt. During the quarter, revenue grew to Rs 128.77 crore as compared to Rs 87.29 crore in the year-ago period, it said. Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) for June quarter increased to Rs 25.42 crore from Rs 21.26 crore. "All our addition of capacities in last year have been fully utilised and we are adding to our revenue and profit. We are also experiencing robust growth plans by our key customers, giving us confidence in continuing our investments in expansion," Sunil Nair, CEO at Snowman Logistics, said. The company continues to boo

Coal ministry developing logistics policy, national coal evacuation plan

The coal ministry is developing a logistics policy for the sector and a national coal evacuation plan with a view to reducing logistics costs, an official statement said on Saturday. An inter-ministerial meeting on logistics was held to review the progress of implementation of the national logistics policy, the statement said adding that it was convened by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). During the meeting measures taken by different ministries to improve logistics efficiency in the country were also showcased, the commerce and industry ministry said. "A draft coal logistic policy and national coal evacuation plan has been developed by the ministry of coal. In addition, standardization of physical assets (heavy earth moving machines for coal handling) and setting up benchmarks for quality management, is under progress," the statement said. Speaking at the meeting DPIIT Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh talked about the critical role played by ports i

Welspun One Logistics Parks' warehousing-focussed fund raises Rs 1,000 cr

Welspun One Logistics Parks (WOLP) on Tuesday said it has raised Rs 1,000 crore within four months of launching its second warehousing-focussed fund. The company also announced the opening of its "green shoe" option to raise an additional Rs 1,000 crore. The potential corpus could reach Rs 2,000 crore upon completion of the green shoe option, which would rank it among the largest in the domestic real estate alternatives space, WOLP said in a statement. The plan entails an overall investment outlay of over Rs 8,000 crore, which will propel Welspun One to an Assets under management (AUM) of USD 1 billion, it said. "We are deeply grateful to our investors for their unwavering faith in us, which has powered our successful second fund-raise," said Anshul Singhal, Managing Director at WOLP. The warehousing sector continues to exhibit strong growth with record-high demand of 51.3 million square feet in FY23, implying a CAGR of 24 per cent during FY17-23, according to the company. With a

Warehousing supply to grow 13-15% in eight primary market in FY24: Report

The industrial and warehouse logistics park supply is likely to grow 13-15 per cent in this fiscal in the eight primary markets to around 435 million square feet, with nearly 52 per cent to come up in grade A capacity, according to a report. However, the incremental absorption is likely to remain flat at the FY23 levels of around 39 million sq ft, Icra Ratings said in the report. The warehousing sector continues to witness a sustained demand from the third-party logistics (3PL) and automobile sectors, which together accounted for 53 per cent of the total leased warehousing area as of March 2023. Additionally, the rapid expansion of new sectors like e-commerce and allied services, the growing needs of the consumption market and the government's focus on manufacturing will boost demand. The agency expects the grade A warehouse stock across the top eight primary markets to grow by 17 per cent to 195 million sq ft by March 2024 from 167 million sq ft in March 2023. For the incremental

Swiggy to acquire retail distribution firm LYNK for undisclosed amount

Food and grocery delivery platform Swiggy on Thursday said it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire LYNK Logistics Limited for an undisclosed amount. The deal paves the way for Swiggy's entry into India's massive retail market with a technology-led distribution platform. LYNK will continue to operate as an independent business post the acquisition led by its co-founder and CEO Shekhar Bhende, Swiggy stated. It enables leading FMCG brands to grow their retail presence through its network of over 1,00,000 retail stores across the top eight cities. "With this acquisition, Swiggy enters India's food and grocery retail market, which is amongst the world's largest and fastest-growing, estimated to be more than USD 570 billion in size and expected to grow at 8 per cent year-on-year," Swiggy noted. Post-acquisition, LYNK will leverage Swiggy's strength in technology and logistics to rapidly scale the existing platform.

Seeking 'accuracy': Govt to come up with fresh logistics cost estimate soon

Initial indications suggest a number lower than 14-16%, says senior official

Allcargo Logistics net profit declines 78% to Rs 51.90 cr in March quarter

Allcargo Logistics' consolidated net profit declined 78 per cent to Rs 51.90 crore in the March 2023 quarter, according to a late-night regulatory filing on Tuesday. The company had posted a consolidated profit of Rs 240.55 crore in Q4 FY22, the filing said. Allcargo, in a statement, announced the appointment of logistics industry veteran Adarsh Hegde as its Managing Director. The consolidated net profit in the January-March quarter of the previous fiscal stands at Rs 51.90 crore, taking into consideration profit from continuing and discontinuing operations, as per the filing. The total income from continued operations slipped 37.49 per cent to Rs 3,415.40 crore in the quarter under review against Rs 5,464.23 crore clocked in the March 2022 quarter, it added. For the full fiscal 2022-23, its consolidated profit (from continuing and discontinuing operations) fell 48 per cent to Rs 653.21 crore from Rs 964.59 crore in FY22. The total income (consolidated) from continuing operations

Gains in Delhivery dependent on a sustained improvement in margins

Increasing volumes while cutting costs would be a major challenge

Hyperlocal logistics firm Shadowfax to hire 10,000 delivery partners

Company's nationwide network serves major e-commerce, food, grocery and retail companies

Mahindra Logistics starts cargo charter operations in Middle East

Mahindra Logistics on Thursday announced that it has commenced cargo charter operations in the Middle East, marking its foray into the overseas market. The charter business will be an independent division serving customers and partners across multiple verticals and geographies, Mahindra Logistics Ltd said in a statement. The company said it will service the Middle East region from its headquarter set up in Dubai. As a neutral player entering the global air cargo charter business, the company said, it will offer dedicated aircraft, enhanced transit time, and the expertise in end-market solution development, among others. With this launch, the company will augment freight forwarding with cargo charter operations partnering with customers in electronics, consumer durables, pharma and engineering, it said in a statement. With increasing complexity in global supply chains, cross-border supply chain services have become critical to supply chain resilience, Rampraveen Swaminathan, Managi

Reduce logistics, supply chain cost to boost economic development: Minister

Industries must reduce logistics and supply chain costs in order to facilitate economic growth and development in the country, Union Minister Raosaheb Danve said in Jalna in Maharashtra on Saturday. The Union Minister of State for Railways, Coal and Mines was speaking at a scrap recycling and waste utilisation awareness conference organised by the Material Recycling Association of India (MRAI) and Steel Manufacturers Association of Maharashtra (SMAM). He said the ambitious Dedicated Freight Corridor project of the Railways, which will have high-speed rail lines to transport goods from Maharashtra in the west and West Bengal in the east to Dadri near Delhi, will bring down logistics costs by connecting industrial hubs. In addition, multi-modal logistics parks in several parts of the country, including Jalna, and 'circular economy parks' in Aurangabad, Ratnagiri, Pune and Nagpur, which will focus on scrap and waste recycling, will help enhance efficiency of the goods transportation ..

Logistics efficiency helped India climb 6 places on World Bank's LPI: Govt

Various initiatives taken by the government to improve its logistics efficiency has helped India climb six places on the recently released World Bank's Logistics Performance Index (LPI) 2023, an official statement said on Wednesday. India has climbed six places on the LPI, now ranking 38th in the 139 countries index, as a result of significant investments in both soft and hard infrastructure as well as technology. India was ranked 44th on the index in 2018 and has now climbed to 38th in the 2023 listing. India's performance has drastically improved from 2014, when it was ranked 54th on the LPI. "India has been taking numerous initiatives since 2015to improve its logistics efficiency. The World Bank has acknowledged India's efforts towards increasing logistics efficiency," the commerce and industry ministry said. On four out of six LPI indicators, India has seen a remarkable improvement on the back of various initiatives being implemented over the past few years, it said. "This is

Supply shocks led to price rise during pandemic, says SBI report

The SBI report analysed 7 sectors - Telecom. FMCG, Two-Wheeler, Passenger Vehicles, Retail Trade, Steel & Basic Metals

Selectively ride logistics stocks as tech wave disrupts market: Analysts

With the Covid-19 pandemic crippling the supply-chain management across borders, investors and venture capital firms started to place their bets on logistics, seeing manifold growth in e-Commerce

Smartr Logistics looking to raise $30 mn in Series A funding by August

Smartr Logistics is expecting to raise USD 30 million in Series A funding round by August this year to drive its aggressive expansion plans which include adding pin codes and services offering among others, a top company executive has said. The city-based company is also eying a more-than-two-fold growth in its topline at Rs 200-250 crore this fiscal from an estimated Rs 90 crore in the just concluded financial year, according to Yogesh Dhingra, Founder, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Smartr Logistics. The logistics platform commenced operations in October 2021 with a seed funding of around Rs 100 crore led by IIFL India Pvt Equity Fund and Smiti Holding & Trading Company (Jalaj Dani Family Office). It currently offers services in both air express and ground logistics space.The company had raised close to Rs 100 crore for seed capital, which was a good amount to run the business (in its initial phase). I think investors are quite comfortable to see this. We are .

Express delivery should have level playing field with general cargo: ICRIER

Economic think tank ICRIER on Tuesday suggested that the government should fast-track trade facilitation-related reforms, in a bid to give express delivery a level-playing field with general cargo. ICRIER in a report titled 'Express Delivery Services Supporting the Journey towards India@2047' said the government should remove all value limits on exports through express delivery services (EDS) to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in global value chains. The EDS industry provides integrated door-to-door transport of documents and products and plays an important role in connecting enterprises, especially SMEs, to the global value chains. EDS is a key sector in trade negotiations and cross border investment flow. The report also emphasised that the government data sharing should be smooth across government agencies. The report noted that there is need for more consultation with the industry about their specific needs and there is a need to make e-commerce a driver of future ...

SpiceJet hives off cargo and logistics biz into separate entity from Apr 1

SpiceJet Ltd on Monday said it has hived off its cargo and logistics business SpiceXpress into a separate entity -- SpiceXpress and Logistics Pvt Ltd, from April 1. The move results in a one-time gain of Rs 2,555.77 crore for SpiceJet, substantially reducing its negative net worth, the company said. It also paves the way for SpiceXpress to raise funds independently, SpiceJet said. The decision to hive off SpiceXpress is in sync with the company's long-term business plan and will unlock significant valuation of the logistic business, SpiceJet Ltd Chairman Ajay Singh said. Singh further said "the separation of our cargo and logistics arm is a stepping stone in our growth story which shall unfold in the times to come". SpiceXpress reported a net profit of Rs 51.4 crore for the April-December period of FY23. "In a bid to boost the growth of its cargo business and provide a more streamlined and efficient service to its customers, SpiceJet Ltd has completed the hive off of its cargo an

DPIIT asks states to hold industry interactions for addressing bottlenecks

The commerce and industry ministry has requested the states to interact with business associations on a regular basis to identify issues related to reducing logistics cost, an official statement said on Saturday. Special Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Sumita Dawra said the states have been advised that an inter-departmental services improvement group may be formed to address logistics-related issues and action plans may be formulated for bringing down logistics cost duly identifying priority areas for taking up multimodal infrastructure related interventions. She was speaking at a workshop in Kochi. A series of regional workshops are being organized to facilitate the wider adoption of the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (NMP) platform across all the states/UTs to sensitise the state officials about it. The special secretary also talked about mapping freight flows in order to have a demand-driven approach to logistics efficiency f