Concor to invest Rs4,500-cr in 4 years, start costal shipping to Bangladesh

Besides boosting rail container services, Concor plans to boost its infrastructure, including dry ports and IT backbone. “This year, Concor plans to invest Rs1,000 crore on infrastructure, dry ports and IT systems,” V Kalyana Rama, chairman and managing director of Concor, said.

Concor plans to add 4,000 containers to its existing stock of 24,000. These will be used exclusively for the domestic market. Concor plans to use containers to transport break-bulk cargoes like cement and foodgrains. 

“The use of containers for cargo movement within the domestic market is still minuscule,” he told newspersons.

Concor had, last year, phased out 2,000 old containers and added 8,000. There is a plan to add 10,000 containers with an investment of around Rs300 crore, and a global tender will be floated shortly.

“Containers are imported mainly from China,” he added.

Rama said after testing coastal shipping from Kandla to Thoothukudi via New Mangalore and Kochi, Concor wants to extend this up to Bangladesh port, which can be also be serviced under coastal shipping. There is a huge demand in Bangladesh with India supplying materials like clinker and cement.

State-run Concor flagged off its coastal shipping service in January linking Deendayal Port Trust in Kandla with V O Chidambaranar Port Trust in Tuticorin with stops at New Mangalore Port Trust and Cochin Port Trust by a weekly call deploying two 700-TEU capacity ships.

The Navratna PSU opened its first distribution logistics centre in Chennai on 31 March.

Container Corporation of India (Concor) will open 20 distribution logistics centres with a combined warehousing space of about 50 million square feet in five years

“You will shortly hear about the Bangladesh service,” he said.

He added that “coastal shipping from Kandla to Bangladesh could happen only by going round Sri Lanka. This can be done in cost-effective mode.”

Concor has introduced the ‘one year-one tariff’ scheme under which customers are offered a single tariff for the whole year, irrespective of any cost escalation. This will ensure price stability throughout the year. “There are no conditions are attached to the scheme,” he said.

For the year ended March 31, 2019, Concor reported net profit of Rs1,200 crore on revenue of Rs7,200 crore. It handled 3.83 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) last year across its 83 terminals.

“We hope to have 10-12 per cent growth in both volume and top line this year,” he said.