Essar Ports, which is one of India’s largest private port operator and part of Essar Capital Ltd, plans to diversify through investment in assets and new businesses, and also aims to reduce its carbon footprint in the next few years, said Mr. Rajiv Agarwal, MD & CEO, Essar Ports Ltd yesterday at a virtual roundtable conference.
“In the future we will be investing in newer businesses such as LNG and diversifying our products and services,” Mr. Agarwal said at in his address at ‘Continuum: Ensuring business resiliency and jumpstarting growth’, a virtual round table conference organised by The Economic Times.
He added saying that the company is looking to utilize the existing capacity of ports and use it effectively into the above mentioned new businesses. Training is core to our strategy and the company ensures for upskilling of both white and blue collar jobs.
“We are also looking at foraying into clean power- solar and wind. We are also aiming at reducing our carbon footprint across our port locations,” Mr. Agarwal.
The ET summit started with discussion on the impact of C-19 on the panelists’ businesses and the strategies the companies have adopted to emerge resilient in this changing business environment.
“The pandemic has made us experience many changes in the way business is done; right from technological transformation to behavioural changes. We are all preparing to be future ready, learning from these very changes (digital being the leader),” he said adding that future investments in businesses are being guided by the pandemic experience. The developments in the sector and nation will need handholding and partnership with Government through constant discussions and engagements.
“We have witnessed a huge change in the ports sector and we are preparing for the future. The signs of green shoots are visible and COVID 19 has played a catalyst for change in many areas like ensuring environmentally safe business practices and overall sustainability being the guiding principle. We have to adapt to these changes as the behavior & technological interventions will change the demand & service levels and the investment decisions for future” he explained.
On the topic of impact of C-19 pandemic on the ports sector Mr. Agarwal observed as part of the essential sector, Essar Ports continued with its operations to service the nation. All our terminals were operational since day one of the lockdown and no force majeure was declared. This was possible because of our teams on ground and their unwavering support and efforts.
“The demand subsided and impacted our Q1 performance which was substantially lower than regular levels. However, in Q2 and Q3 we witnessed a bounce back in the demand and we are already back to precovid levels. Our clients in the oil, steel, power generation and mining gained momentum gradually. Infact, our Vizag Terminal has seen growth of in FY 21 as compared to FY 20 which is a remarkable achievement during these times. Now the economy is getting into a good shape and the industry is gaining momentum and numbers of dry and wet cargo are also looking good,” he said. He also emphasised on saving cash by businesses and moving towards asset light model wherein the existing infrastructures, assets and experience can be leveraged to deliver services and value propositions as extensions of existing line of Business.