Essar Ports looking to ramp up volume

Currently, Essar Ports with an annual capacity of 76 million tonnes handles 40 mt of captive cargo, mainly crude for the Group’s Vadinar refinery and iron ore for its Hazira steel plant. Essar Ports, the country’s second largest in the private sector in terms of cargo volume, is on its way to double its capacity to 158 mt in the next two years. The actual cargo volume handled by then is expected to go up to 120 million tonnes, said Mr Rajiv Agarwal, the Chief Executive Officer of Essar Shipping, Port and Logistics. Besides capacity expansion at Hazira and Vadinar, the group is setting up a 20 mt dry bulk terminal at Salaya in Gujarat, and 30 mt iron ore and coal berths at Paradip in Orissa.??Currently, both Vadinar and Hazira ports operate under long-term contracts with group companies at tariff which are on par with other ports in the country.