Adani Ports focussing on scaling up marine, logistics and agri-logistics businesses

New Delhi: Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) managing director Karan Adani has said that India's biggest private port operator is focusing on scaling up its marine, logistics and agri-logistics businesses.

In an interview with PTI, Adani said that APSEZ, the flagship company of the Adani group, will invest Rs 13,000 crore in Vizhinjam International Seaport in phase 2, which will take this deep-water port's cargo handling capacity from current 1.2 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) to almost 5 million TEUs by 2028.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 2 commissioned the Vizhinjam International Seaport which was completed at an estimated cost of Rs 8,867 crore.

"Within APSEZ, we have three big verticals that we are building on -- marine business, logistics business and agri-logistics business," he said.

While pointing out that APSEZ is the the largest operator in the country in marine business, Adani said, "the idea now is to keep scaling that (marine business) business up within India, as well as outside of India".

On the logistics side, Adani said APSEZ is looking at building multi-model logistics parks, similar to what the Adani group has done in the ports.

"We want to build large, multi-modal logistics parks, and then to help it bring in volume, as well as to drive efficiency," he said.

Referring to agri-logistics business, Adani said the grains which are stored today in India, are not stored in a proper manner.

"So we are looking at silos, building silos and storing them," he said.

Asked how is Vizhinjam International Seaport is different from APSEZ's other ports, Adani explained that Adani group's ports are predominantly doing the domestic volume and the import -export volume, none of them do transshipment volume.

"Vizhinjam International Seaport is the first one in the country with 100 per cent transshipment volume -- currently all the cargo which is moving from our ports are going to Singapore and to Colombo, those are the ones (cargo) which we are targeting to bring into Vizhinjam port," he said.

Currently, 75 per cent of India's transshipment cargo is handled at ports outside India and Indian ports lose up to USD 200-220 million of potential revenue each year on transshipment handling of cargo originating/destined for India.

The Vizhinjam project is intended primarily to bring home the Indian cargo transshipment presently being undertaken at the foreign ports of Singapore, Colombo, Salalah and Dubai.

A transshipment port is a kind of transit hub where cargo from one ship is transferred to another ship on the way to its final destination.

Asked how Vizhinjam International Seaport would compete with Colombo and Singapore ports in terms of tariffs, he said that Vizhinjam ports will have to compete on the international level.

"So we will have to compete on all aspects, not just tariff.

We will have to compete on efficiency, we will have to compete on operations as well as productivity," he said.

Responding to a question on APSEZ's international acquisitions plan, he said South East Asia and East Africa regions are areas of interest for APSEZ.

"We keep evaluating opportunities... We are looking at high growth countries. We are looking at opportunities where we can scale up.

"We are looking at countries where India has historically done a lot of trade, but that trade has moved to other countries," Adani said.

Responding to a question on India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), he said, "IMEC is a very critical project from a strategic perspective, from being self-reliant on supply chain as well as to have a de-risking strategy from a supply chain perspective."

Adani said once the IMEC project gets completed, it will help a lot of Indian importers and exporters connect to Europe at a much faster rate, at a much cheaper rate.

Billed as a pathbreaking initiative, the IMEC envisages a vast road, railroad and shipping networks among Saudi Arabia, India, the United States and Europe with an aim to ensure integration among Asia, Middle East and West.

Asked what are the challenges that APSEZ face amid the ongoing tariff war and uncertainty over the US trade policy, he said ,"We are proxy to what the country's growth is going to be. I think the country is growing.

"I do not think so there is any doubt in terms of the growth of the country and so far, we do not see major, major disruption happening because of the ongoing tariff wars," Adani added.

Asked what is his idea of work-life balance, he said he almost works 16-17 hours a day.

"But the good part is, my wife supports me fully and she also works 16-17 hours a day. So we are able to manage," he said.

Karan (38), the older son of Gautam Adani, became the managing director of APSEZ in January 2024.

APSEZ, a part of globally diversified Adani Group, is the largest port developer and operator in India with 7 strategically located ports and terminals on the west coast and 8 ports and terminals on the east coast.