Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Container Corporation of India Limited Q2FY 2025 earnings conference call hosted by DAM Capital Advisors Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please email an operator by pressing Star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Bhoomika Nair from DAM Capital Advisors Limited. Thank you. And over to you, ma'am.
Yeah, thanks. Good morning everyone, and a warm welcome to the Q2FY25 earnings call of Container Corporation of India. We have the management today being represented by Mr. Sanjay Swaroop, Chairman and Managing Director of CONCOR. I'll now hand over the floor to him for his initial remarks after which we'll open up the floor for Q & A. Thank you. Over to you, sir.
Yeah. Good morning everybody. On behalf of CONCOR family, I would like to extend the Diwali greetings to all of you. In the conference call I am joined by Mr. Mohammed Azhar Shams, Director (Domestic). Mr. Priyaranjan Parhi, Director, International Marketing and Operations. Mr. Ajit Kumar Panda, Director (Projects and Services). Mr. Anurag Kapil, Director (Finance). And Mr. Harish Chandra, Executive Director (Finance) and Company Secretary of CONCOR. I would like to give you some highlights and after that we can start question answer session. I'm happy to announce the growth in throughput of 6% for the first half of this financial year. It includes Exim growth of 3.5% and domestic growth of 14.5%. Exim growth is quite in line with India's international trade in exports.
For the first half, the international trade of India was a total of $213.22 billion, which is a growth of 1% over the corresponding period of the last financial year. The import total of our country was $350.66 billion, which is a growth of 6% over the last financial year. One more point that I would like to present is that we had an increase in Exim market share for this first half. On a pan India basis, our Exim market share grew by 91 basis points.
At Mundra Port, our Exim market share grew by 248 basis points, and our market share grew by 285 basis points. The good thing is that there is a growth in market share as well as there is a growth in margins also. So without sacrificing margins, we have grown our market share. Rail freight margin grew by 80 basis points year-on-year.
Operating margin excluding exceptional items grew by 95 basis points year-on-year. The primary reasons for this performance is the customer centricity and operational excellence of Team CONCOR. Operating income growth was 6.58%. Growth in profit after tax was 4.08% for the company and the double stack rates also saw a good growth of 11.5%. In this first half we had 3,083 double-stack trains as compared to 2,766 last year. We have added infrastructure also to give service to our customers. In this first half we have commissioned two high-speed heavy capacity rakes and we hope that in the second half we will be commissioning 10 more rakes. So for this financial year around 12 high-speed heavy capacity rakes will be commissioned by us. So now our total count of rakes stands at 380. We have procured 5,130 new containers in the first half.
Total count stands at now 49,516 containers which are owned by CONCOR. We are continuously adding more and more containers of tank containers, and maybe for 40-foot types. Also we are going now, for the first time, for our domestic customers. We had earmarked the CapEx budget of INR 610 crore for this financial year. In the first half we have already achieved INR 276.16 crore and we may be looking at the CapEx budget very soon whether we want to upgrade it seeing the infrastructure requirements of the company. International, as you all know, because of the challenging geopolitical scenario international supply chains are adversely affected. This has resulted in erratic vessel schedules. There is a congestion at transshipment ports and there is less availability of slots in vessels for exports. These are the challenging situations being faced by Exim trade of our country.
Domestic loading was also affected in the second quarter primarily because we had very good rainfall in North India and Gujarat which affected our domestic loading. But I'm happy to announce that from this month it has picked up very nicely and we are getting very good growth in domestic in Q3. Despite all these challenges, the exports increased. For some commodities there was handsome increase like for ready-made garments there was 41% growth. Paper products 31% growth. Food items 28% growth. Similarly imports also in solar modules it was 126% growth. Wood pulp it was 20% growth. And I am happy to inform all of you that CONCOR commenced rail services between Kandla Port and inland ICDs of North India. This is a new port where we have started the rail services and we have posted ever highest PAT of INR 371 crores in Q2.
This is the highest for any quarter in the history of CONCOR, and this is despite the exceptional items of INR 25 crore net of tax that one of the Vivad Se Vishwas scheme claim that we settled as per the directives of Government of India. If we add this 25 crore then the PAT will further increase, so as such INR 371 crore is a record for our company. The record PAT in any quarter we had the highest operating turnover, highest total turnover in any first half year and highest PAT also in any first half. Despite apart from the highest PAT in a quarter also, the board of directors has declared dividend of INR 3.25 per share which is 65% of par value.
Till now we have declared a dividend of 105% for the first half of this financial year, which is around total payout of INR 322 crore for our shareholders. Focus area of the company remains total logistics solution to customers. Business solution including warehousing and FMLM and providing green and sustainable logistics to our customers. At this point I would like to maintain the guidance that I gave at the start of financial year. That is for Exim 15%, domestic 25%, and total 18%. Of course in Exim it will be a bit challenging but I am quite confident that we will be able to achieve this. The new initiative growth drivers for achieving this guidance will be some 34 growth drivers we have identified. First will be the bringing JNPT Nhava Sheva on double stack that is through Varnama by November end.
I am confident that we will be able to start this service wherein we will give benefit of double stacking to North India customers for Nhava Sheva traffic. And I expect that there will be diversion of business from road to rail. So this will be a big gain for the company. Second will be the bulk cement in tank containers. I had a meeting recently with CMD of Braithwaite Corporation which is a sister PSU of CONCOR and the Ministry of Railways. And he has assured me that by December he will start giving us tank containers which will be utilized for bulk cement movement. We are in touch with leading cement manufacturers. They are quite excited about it and we hope to garner very good business in domestic in the coming months.
Then we have very good demand for rice exports now, and especially at our ICDs at Nagpur, Raipur, Sonipat, et cetera, and we hope that in the coming months already actually rice exports have started. After Diwali the traction is going to pick up, so we will have very good rice exports in the coming months. All these things will add to our top line as well as bottom line. We are also, we have signed and we are still signing agreements of volume-based discounts with shipping lines. Long-term agreements three to five years. This will further cement our relationship with them and increase our business. Besides that we will get business at new terminals that we are commissioned and we'll have more focus on DPD direct port delivery movements. All these five, six growth drivers will further enhance our business.
We are quite confident that we will end up achieving the guidance that I gave at the start of the financial year. This is all opening statement from my side. Now you can start with questions.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Amit Dixit from ICICI. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for the opportunity and congratulations for great performance in spite of all odds. I have a couple of questions, sir. The first one is on the LLF. So while we saw some kind of reversal of around INR 40 crore in this quarter, I just wanted to understand the broad contours of it that how do we see this LLF panning out for rest of the year and what kind of LLF provisions we should take in our own models. And secondly, why this INR 40 crore provision write-back? What exactly is happening over there.
Okay, thank you. Amit. As far as LLF is concerned, this INR 40 crore actually provision we had made at the ICD Bhiwandi. But now that the land rates are settled with Railways so we have set off in this quarter. So LLF is settled with the Indian Railways. Now there is no further issue. And we are constantly, as I mentioned in my earlier conference calls also we are constantly evaluating our terminals that wherever we come up with new logistics parks we surrender the railway terminals. So that is a saving on LLF without sacrificing our business. So same policy will continue as far as the payment of LLF is concerned. It is more or less settled with Railways so we need not worry on that front.
Any guidance you would like to provide for FY25, sir? On LLF.
That will be in the range of INR 350-400 crore, not more than that.
Okay, the second question is on domestic business. So exim while it has performed pretty well domestic also what I see that it has bounced off compared to last quarter. But if I compare YY basis while our revenue has gone up a bit has fallen. So just wanted to understand whether it is due to the rail to the road competition from road guys or whether it is due to more empty running or. Just wanted to get a little bit more clarity on this.
Domestic business has performed quite well, of course not as expected, but if you see year-on-year for first half there is a growth of 14.5% in handling in domestic and 22% growth in originating TEUs in number of containers. Of course it could have been better but because of, as I mentioned in my opening address, very good rainfall that we had this year in North India as well as Gujarat because Gujarat and North India are the major originating points for domestic loading, so there was disruption because of rains and we could not get that much loading, but from this month, October, we are getting very good loading in domestic and we are quite satisfied with it, so you will see in subsequent weeks domestic will be doing extremely well.
The more specific question was essentially that, you know, revenue has remained flat while EBIT has fallen. Just wanted to understand whether there was some one-off cost item or something that was in this quarter that would not recur.
I would like. I request my Director Domestic to throw more light on this.
I think in this respect whatever you have been underlining, my take is like, you know that for the last three to four months or you may start say that from start at this financial we have been losing a bit of market share in the domestic because the competitors on the CTOs have been really very aggressive and I have been giving very very aggressive rate and we were losing the business. In order to arrest that trend we took a conscious call. Let us first regain the volume even at the cost of some reduction in revenue and profitability and subsequently we will see what to do. So now I think that result we have started getting from this month only and we have tweaked our rate positively also in some streams.
So, I think whatever negative trend you see, that our volume has increased but revenue has been flat. But from this month and whatever corrective action we took, now the customers are with us and they are ready to accept, you know, EBITDA rate increase because of our services. So, I think the positive result in revenue you will see from third quarter onward. And October is certainly showing very good green shoots on that. Very clear, sir. Thank you so much and all the best.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Bhoomika Nair from DAM Capital Advisors. Please go ahead. Yes sir.
First, can you please share the originating volumes for this quarter?
Yes. Originating volume of this quarter is Exim. It is 557,576 domestic 133,255 TEUs. Total is 690,831 TEUs.
Okay. Okay. So sir, I mean you know, how are you seeing the trajectory now in October? You know, there was this whole Red Sea and shipping disruption etc which had led to you know, heavy volumes kind of moving away from rail. How is that now kind of panning out in the month of October or off fleet?
In October month. As I told you, we have got very good traction in domestic. Domestic we are seeing very good loading across the country. As far as Exim is concerned, imports are a bit muted. Growth is there but not that much, but from the last one week to 10 days we are seeing good demand of rice exports. And we have got firm indications, we are in touch with trade that after Diwali, rice exports is coming in a big way. And imports are also going to increase because of the Red Sea disruption. There was, as I told you initially, erratic vessel schedules. They cannot be very, very predictable. So because of that it was a temporary, you can say, dip in the month of October for the first 15-20 days, but now it is going to pick up.
Okay.
Okay.
So can we also get the empty running charges for EXIM domestic and also the lead distances for this quarter?
EBITDA for half year for EXIM it is INR 63.47 crores. Domestic it is INR 140.89 crores. Total is INR 204.36 crores.
And the lead distances for.
Exim, for domestic it is 1,318 kilometers. Exim is 705 kilometers. Total is 803 kilometers.
Sir, I mean, I'm sorry, just to circle back on this volume aspect. I know you guided for 15% in EXIM, but if you look at the first half, it's about sub 4% kind of a growth. So, you know, it will mean that in the second half we'll have to see that trajectory moving to 20-25%. That's the kind of momentum that we are seeing as of now.
Yeah, as of now, we frankly speaking, that momentum we are visualizing because there is a very good projection given by trade, and we are of course. I find it challenging as I told my TV interviews also in the morning. Of course, we find it challenging, but we are quite confident based on the various sectors like rice exports and double stacking to JNPT. So these things are very very crucial for trade and they are well publicized. Trade is very much aware and so we are quite confident that we will be able to get this target.
Okay. Okay, great, sir. I'll move to come back in the question queue. Thank you so much.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Alok Deora from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Congratulations on good numbers, sir, just wanted to understand this LLF. There's this INR 40 crore reversal, so andy ou mentioned about INR 350 crore sort of o ur guidance for this year. So we are expecting some further reversals.
Also in coming quarters because the quarterback.
I believe was around INR 100 crore per quarter.
So I told you 350 to 400.
Got it?
Right.
Okay. It will be near 400. Only near 400. Got it?
And then for next year it would be around 7% higher, this kind of number.
Yeah, you are well aware the formula is that every year it should increase by 7%. But at the same time as I mentioned initially that we are constantly evaluating that wherever we set up new logistic parks and that logistic park is able to serve the ICD for a particular terminal. Then we move our business to logistic park and close the terminal, surrender it to Railways so that exercise will continue maybe next year we are able to commission some logistic park and surrender some land so then it will have an impact on LLFs.
Got it. And sir, on this guidance point again I mean you have maintained the guidance but you know it's pretty challenging environment as you know industry indicators are pointing out to be.
So, in that scenario, such a kind.
Of growth in second half as you.
yourself mentioned it is challenging.
What is the bare minimum growth?
You could actually achieve if things did not pan out the way we are.
Expecting barely any growth on the EXIM side.
See, normally from first October we say that busy season has started. In railway's language, it has already started. Business means more business, so I'm quite optimistic that we will be able to achieve the guidance that I gave in the start of the financial year. And there are various pointers and there are various, you know, pointers that I am getting by interaction with trade. So this is. That is why I am feeling very confident to achieve this guidance. So I will, I will like to adhere to it. And I'm quite confident that we will be able to achieve this guidance. I will not try like to speculate on any other number.
Got it sir. Got it. All right sir. That's all for myself. Thank you.
All the best.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Rishi Giriya from Ashika. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Yes please.
So, while you are maintaining the guidance level, could you help us quantify what are the initiatives that you think would be contributing to this growth? I mean, the growth number is exorbitant, like the other participants had also mentioned. But, could you help us quantify some numbers for it?
See, I already told the growth drivers five, six growth drivers in my opening remarks. Now which growth driver will give me how much number? That I'm not able to tell you right now. Maybe separately one to one basis we can discuss, and I can tell you.
Right.
My second question is regarding this Vivad Se Vishwas. The contractual expense that we had this quarter. Could we just explore explain what was this for?
Actually, this was a dispute between contractor and CONCOR in which the Vivad Se Vishwas scheme is given by Government of India. That if arbitration award goes against the company then this is a medium through which some 65% of that award we can offer to the opposite party. And if they agree, if they accept it then we settle it. And all the future court cases are avoided. There is no court case after that by the party. So it was some such dispute in some contract in which the arbitration award went against the company. And the contractor went for Vivad Se Vishwas scheme. And we also worked out how much money is payable. And then 65% of that we offered as per the scheme to the contractor and he accepted it. So we had to settle it.
We made the payment, and net of tax it was INR 25 crores, which hit we have to take in this quarter.
All right, understood.
Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you very much. Participants, to ask a question, you may press star and one. The next question is from the line of Priyankar Biswas from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Good morning, sir. So this is Priyankar Biswas from BNP Paribas. So my first question is. So what I understand now is that the Western DFC connection to JNPT is not happening before December 2025. So earlier it was March 2025. So in such a case how would we be able to secure a. Let's say after double digit growth in existing volumes in FY25. Again let's say a double digit growth in FY26 because what we are witnessing is a very steady erosion in rail modal share in JNPT. So if you can address this point.
Yeah, it's a good question. You rightly mentioned that Western DFC connection to JNPT will be in December 2025 as per the indications given by DFC officials. But we are going to give benefit of double stacking to our customers for JNPT. We have set up a terminal at a place called Varnama near Vadodara which is 400 km from JNPT. So for North India customers we will be running double stack train up to Varnama because it's the unique terminal which is connected to Indian Railways and as well as DFC connectivity is under progress. Last week I have visited Varnama, I have inspected the site and work is going on in full swing.
Of course it was affected because of the rains but now work is going on at full speed and we are confident that by before end of November the work will be commissioned and this terminal will be connected to DFC. It will be having connection to DFC as well as Railways. We will run double-stack trains from Dadri and Kathuwas up to Varnama double-stack train on DFC and from Varnama we will break it into two single stack trains and they will go on Indian railway route up to JNPT for the last 400 kilometers. The reverse will happen for imports. In this manner we will be able to have some predictability for our customers predictable time at JNPT and secondly we will pass on some cost benefits for the containers which are moving on upper deck.
We are confident that we will be able to shift lot of cargo from road to rail as a result of this exercise. That is the benefit. That is one of the growth drivers that I mentioned in my opening remarks and we are quite confident to achieve this.
Sir, just harping again on this, any particular reason why in JNPT the rail coefficient is falling and why and what is the coefficient right now? Because we have been seeing this trend for some time now. What may be the reason for it?
See, JNPT rail coefficient at present is around 16% in which the CONCOR share is 58% for the first half of this financial year. The main reason is that lot of cargo has for North India lot of cargo has shifted to Mundra which is giving a benefit of double stacks. Secondly distance to North India is also less from Mundra to North India. JNPT is now serving the hinterland around JNPT for which the road becomes faster and economical. JNPT is also serving the area of Nagpur, Hyderabad. Even we have started for Bengaluru also. One movement we are doing for Visakhapatnam also from JNPT. All these places JNPT is serving by rail. But primarily it is serving short distance traffic which is more viable by road. That is the most probable reason of decline in rail coefficient.
But with the commissioning of DSP we hope that rail coefficient at JNPT will rise.
Thank you sir, that's very clear. And just one question. I'm just squeezing in. So I think in 2Q the railway does not levy a busy season surcharge. But from 3Q onwards they again start doing it. I think it's 10%. So would that be impacting our margins on a sequential basis at least on exim?
If you can take that.
See, railway. Railway is levying Busy Season Surcharge for the year now. So they have not done any relaxation for Q2. But there is no cause of worry because whatever the tariff increase that we had from November of last year that we are continuing, we have not revised our rates. So there will not be any effect on margins.
Thank you, sir.
That was awesome.
Thank you very much. The next question is on the line of Mukesh Saraf from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity. The question is around inland growth. So if I look at your origination, they've grown around 3% this quarter. When I look at, say, the port volume growth at some of the major ports. Obviously, JNPT has grown at more than 15%, Mundra at 12% in the second quarter. We're just trying to understand this gap is widening between our origination growth and the port JNPT. Obviously, you had mentioned that rail concessions have been falling. But in Mundra, what we understand is rail proportions have been going up as well. So could you kind of throw some light on the gap between the growth numbers for us and the port level, especially Mundra kind of ports.
As a matter of fact at Mundra Port the rail coefficient has come down but our market share has increased. I will give you the numbers for the first half of financial year. In Mundra Port last year rail coefficient was 25.79%. It has become now 23.82%. So there is a downward trend as far as rail coefficient is concerned. But our market share was 36.35% which has now become 38.83%. Like I told in the opening remarks, our market share has grown by 248 basis points at Mundra Port. As far as Pipavav Port is concerned there is a drastic fall in rail coefficient. Last year it was 64.55% and this year the rail coefficient is 57.42% whereas our market share has increased from 45.04% to 47.89% which is a growth of 285 basis points. And all this we have achieved without sacrificing our margins.
That is the beauty of it. So our margins are intact. Margins have in fact increased and we have increased our market share as well as increased our margins. So that is a testimony of the relationship, excellent relationship that we have with our customers and the operational excellence shown by our team. CONCOR.
Great. If you could also give the same numbers for some of the other major ports like Chennai.
I don't have numbers for other ports but I have for Mundra, which I have already shared.
Sure, sure. Thank you. And my second question is I think you mentioned in the opening remarks and in the last quarter as well that we're getting into these long-term contracts with shipping lines. Maybe three- to five-year kind of contracts. While we don't want the details in terms of the commercials but could you throw some light on pricing etc. how these would work because these are volume-based contracts and you have to kind of bid at attractive prices to get those higher volumes.
How does this work?
Yeah, it's a very good question actually. What we are doing is we are having long-term relationship with shipping lines and big shipping lines. We are big as well as small. It is for all actually as you may be knowing since last one or two years the focus of the company is on providing total logistics solution to our customers. This is one of the focus area of the company. So we have four million sq ft of warehousing spaces at our 66 terminals across the country. We are building more warehouses. Apart from that we have become quite strong in FMLM also. First mile, last mile we are having 130 LNG trucks for FMLM and 200 more. We are procuring. One more news I wanted to share with all of you.
The first LNG pump in North India of our country is going to be commissioned this month only. Sorry, next month in November, mid-November at our MMLP at Kathuwas, so because in North India we are constrained we cannot deploy LNG trucks because there is no LNG pump, fuel pump, so that is being commissioned by IOC in our terminal at Kathuwas, so we have had a series of meetings with shipping lines at Mumbai as well as UAE, and we offered our warehouses, we offered our first mile, last mile and we offer volume-based incentives, so all these things we gave them as a package that you use our services, and in turn it will be win-win situation for shipping lines as well as for CONCOR, so all these things, part of a, you know they are part of this agreement that we are having with shipping lines.
I visited the headquarters of Maersk, which is the second biggest shipping line in Copenhagen, Denmark, and they were quite excited when I told them about the green logistics ESG norms being followed by our company and Total Business Solutions. So they have had internal discussions and all of them are coming forward to sign these agreements with us, which are a comprehensive agreement. So ultimately we are going for giving total service to our customers and in the process we will increase our margins also.
Right, right. So we should expect these value added services to go up. Vis-à-vis, we say previous contracts to these new contracts that they're getting.
Yeah, that's right. We should expect more value added services.
Correct. Got it.
Got it.
Thank you so much. I'm back in.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Aditya Mongia from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. I'll go ahead with my questions. First is actually more of a clarification. This INR 40 crore provision that you have kind of reversed and that links to Vivad Se Vishwas, does it have any impact in the manner that your incremental land license fees will be calculated completely different and not to be linked up to future land license fee numbers?
Oh no, it will not be linked up to the future. This is a provision we made expecting that this will be the LLF rate once we settle it with Indian Railways. Then whatever provision, if it is extra then that has to be written back. That is what we have done. So future I don't think it will have any impact.
Understood. Now if I then assume this to be a one off, it seems that your margins are much lesser than 25% at an EBITDA level. Just wanted to understand when you kind of gave the guidance on the interview, was this including other income that you were saying 25% or if?
If it was not.
If it was an EBITDA margin level and before other income then how do?
You raise the gap from here on?
Because today the margins are more like 23-ish% or so. If I take away this benefit.
If you see the operating margin, operating margin is also quite high. The healthy operating margin we are. We have 33.65% operating margin in this half of financial year. Real estate margin was around 28%. One more thing is exceptional item that is INR 25 crore net of tax. So if we take all these things into consideration, I am quite confident that 25% EBITDA level can be maintained by the company.
Yeah, but this is including other income. Just clarifying when you keep this number out or excluding other income.
Of course it includes other income also.
Understood.
So that clarifies. Just moving on to the other questions. Wanted to get a sense from you.
That.
This modal share coefficient issue is impacting assets that already have a DFC there. So it is actually impacting somewhat JNPT but a lot more Mundra and T. Should this be something that one should be worrying about? Will it reverse? What are the drivers of it? Because WDFC should be supportive right over here. I'm just trying to get a sense of why, why, why would this be happening and how to think for the future.
I'm not able to understand your question. Can you please rephrase it?
Sure. Typically in Mundra and Pipavav the modal coefficient should have gone up over time because Western DFC has been connected for some time but it is going down. Could you give us a sense of what is happening leading to this situation?
Okay, so now the Pipavav Port is mostly serving the inland link near Pipavav. So road becomes very competitive. The rail is not competitive for that short distance movement. For Mundra also there is a lot of short distance movement and apart from that there is a movement for CFSs around Mundra. There are around 35-40 CFSs near Mundra port where many shipping lines prefer that they de-stuff their containers and take the cargo by road. So if they have urgency of containers near the ports. So all these factors also affect the rail contention. But of course our endeavor is that maximum container should come to the inland end for which we are creating so much assets. We continue talking to the trade and convincing them and many times it happens also that they shift their pattern from CFS to the inland and ICDs.
But a lot of decision making is done by shipping lines.
Understood. Just a couple of questions more from my side. First for your other income or your interest income. If I see the cash flow statement has meaningfully gone up from 1Q to 2Q, could you give us a sense of what is driving this and will this number again fall or be sustained?
At two Q levels, I will request my ED Finance, Harish Chandra. He will take this question, please. You have rightly said the other income we have the income from interest, the dividend which we get from our subsidiaries. So these kind of incomes are rental income. So this varies because you know the dividend received from the subsidiaries and joint ventures, it depends the receipt of the dividend. And then secondly we have also received one refund from Income Tax Department. There was also some interest element in that. So that is the reason that the increase in the other income is reflected. In last year it was INR 102 crores and this is INR 130 crores in this quarter. So that's the reason mainly the receipt of dividend as well as interest on the income tax refund.
Understood. Maybe a last question from my side. I think as we now better understand JNPT because you're saying that you will do double stacking and give more connectivity and pass on some savings to the customer. Could you give us a sense of how much would be the customer better off now when he makes the decision of choosing road and rail? And what kind of savings would you be passing on to the customer once you have the Varnama terminal ready?
See, actually I cannot disclose it at the moment but I can give you some idea about it. First thing is that when the container goes on upper deck, Railway charges 50% of rail haulage. So that will be one of the saving that we will be having for 40ft containers carrying lightweight cargo. Just to give you an idea, when from Dadri to Mundra Port we were running double stack, when we started double stack trains we tweaked our tariff by 8%-10% for this lightweight cargo and we had extra 12%-15% traffic. So maybe Nhava Sheva may be around that number only. But right now the exact numbers it is not possible to give it to you.
Is there any other terminal alongside Varnama which may also come up from a competitor perspective? Let's say Viramgam for that matter. Is that a similar offering of double stacking that is happening till Viramgam and then one goes to JNPT or are you the only one benefiting or going to benefit from this Viramgam?
It actually is not on that route. Viramgam is a different. It will be taking off towards. It will be from Ahmedabad towards Mundra. So if you bring the train from North India to Nhava Sheva, Viramgam will not come in between. Viramgam will be a different route from Ahmedabad to Mundra. In between you will get Viramgam. So as of now near Varnama there is no such terminal which has connectivity to DFC as well as Indian Railways.
Got that.
Thanks a lot for squeezing in all.
My questions and the call are provided.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Shrinidhi Karlekar from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Yeah.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. So just one clarification. So did you say there was a busy season surcharge even during quarter two?
Yes, please.
Okay, so in that context, what has driven the sequential improvement in the rail fleet margin? Because if I look at the rail freight cost as a percentage of revenue, there has been a sharp sequential improvement. May I ask what has really driven this?
This is due to the operational excellence of Team CONCOR. As I told you, there is a growth in double stacking. There's 11.5% growth in double-stack in the first half of this financial year. This first half we have handled 3083 double-stack trains as compared to 2766 double-stack trains last year. So this has contributed in a big way for reducing the empty running which has affected the positively affected the rail freight margins. And secondly the domestic also we are getting lot of now empty movement has come down in domestic. If you see there is a 1.5% reduction in empty running which is a remarkable performance as compared to 143 crores last financial year. We have, you know incurred empty running cost of 140.8 crores. So there's a difference of reduction of 1.5%.
All these factors have positively impacted the rail freight margin and it has improved by 80 basis points year-on-year from 27.06%. It has gone to 27.85%. Right. It's a lot of the factors that.
Does this improvement seem to be company specific? So do you think this very healthy rail freight margin adjusted for the mix changes you would be able to retain in the second half as well?
Yes, of course we will be able to retain it and I think we will be able to improve upon it because we are bringing JNPT also on double stack now, plus domestic we are seeing a very good traction, so all these things will positively continue and realized margin will further improve.
Last one, I think Director Domestic did highlight some changes like increases in domestic business prices. Have you taken any price hikes in the EXIM segment as well in recent months in some notes?
No, Exim, we have not undertaken any price rise because railways also not revised the prices and domestic also we keep on changing as such. We have not done any, not across the board road increase and we keep on revisiting because domestic is a dynamic pricing kind of thing. Road, it is a direct competition with road. So we keep on revisiting wherever we have to bring it down wherever we have to increase. So that is a continuous exercise by domestic division.
Last one. How has been the first mile, last mile penetration now and where do you think it going up by next year?
We are in this financial year, FY25. We are targeting 50% of our business that we are giving should be on first mile, last mile. At present on Pan India basis around 27%-30% we are able to achieve in the first half of this financial year and we are continuously, you know, working to improve it and achieve the target of 50%. Next financial year we will set up a target of 80% of our volume should be first mile last mile we will be able to give.
Thank you for answering my questions.
All the very best, and we are getting very good margin also on this stream for the first half of financial year. We have got 35% increase in first mile, last mile as far as revenue terms is concerned.
Thank you for answering your question, sir.
All the very best.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Amit Bhinde from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. I want you to understand that there was an announcement made in September that there would be some discounts provided on the storage charges, etc. to.
Boost the Exim trade.
So what would be the impact, cost impact for us on the Exim margins or increasing costs in other words?
Yeah, now I want to clarify. There is no concession on storage charges. It was in media also the thing is that we are already giving 90 days free storage for empty containers. For empty containers we are giving in exim. I am talking in empty containers. We are giving 90 days free storage at all our terminals and for loaded containers we are giving a free storage of 15 days. So that is there for last one year. We have not changed it.
There's no reduction or there's no upward movement in that. The thing that we revised was the empty handling charges at our terminal at Dronagiri. At Dronagiri empty handling charges were in the range of 6,000 for 20 ft and 9,000 for 40 ft. So that we have brought down and reason was that at present we have very minuscule empty inventory at our terminal at Dronagiri.
So we are intending that with this reduction in empty handling charges at Dronagiri and only Dronagiri we have brought it down. So we will get lot of business, lot of empty containers will come. So at present suppose we are having an earning of zero. So at least we will get some earning. So that keeping that perspective in mind, we have revised the empty handling charges and there have been inquiries from shipping lines and very soon they will be storing their empty containers at our terminal. So that will be like extra earning for the company. It will not be a lot at all. And as far as empty storage time, I again want to clarify it is still 90 days free time and at all CONCOR terminals. This is there for last one year. There is no reduction in that.
How about the 50% reduction in the charge beyond 90 days? Was there already there or now that?
Would come, I mean, or beyond 90.
Dadri, there is a uniform period, then there is no reduction in charge.
Right.
So I think the news suggested that.
There would be 50% reduction actually. Yeah, in media what was being shown was not in the correct perspective. So it's good that you have all this question. So I hope it clarifies if anybody has any doubt they can ask more questions. I am ready to clarify.
The second question that I have is your guidance, as you were mentioning earlier or you mentioned that now the trends would be such that handling and originating would be growing to in line itself and there wouldn't be disparity. So the guidance holds on both. But here we see that your domestic has grown at around 15% in handling and around 22% in originating. So now your guidance for full year, are you giving it on the originating basis or handling basis?
Handling basis.
Okay, sure, sir, those were the questions.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Koundinya from Jefferies, please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. So my first question is a bit on the macro side.
Can you help understand what is the thought process in extending this BSS? I mean, because we clearly see that.
Utilization has been falling off across segments, that stood out in the first one and the second one. Can you help us understand what is driving this market share improvement for CONCOR?
What are the key reasons? If you can elaborate, please.
Thank you.
For the first question, I am not the best person to answer this question because this was done by Ministry of Railways. But to be fair to them, for the last eight years they have not increased the railway charges. So 10% increase. I don't think it was very much unjustified, I should say. But of course the quantum was very high that immediately it stopped the trade that was the. That is my reply on the first question. As far as the second question is concerned, this increasing market share is due to the customer centricity policy that we have been following for the last one and a half years. Plus the operational innovations, operational excellence that has been done by my operations team at CONCOR. These are the two, two reasons, primary reasons for. For increase in market share with corresponding increase in margin.
There's no drop in margin also.
Okay. So lastly, if you can also briefly touch base on some of the initiatives because you spoke in one of the con calls that you're offering specific.
You're giving specific offers to certain corporate groups.
Can you provide some update on that?
Or, where is its current status?
See, we are a PSU, so we cannot have one-to-one offers that are valid for one customer. It will not be valid for another customer. What we do is we design our schemes based on the volume slabs. So whichever customer processes that slab, they are eligible to avail of that scheme. We are not designing schemes for a particular customer. We can't do that because we are a public sector company. So we have been doing it for so many years. Like, volume discount schemes: if you give more volume, you get more discount. If your incremental volume is more, you get more discounts. So there are so many schemes like that that we are doing for exports, imports throughout our ICDs, as well as domestic. We have business associate policy.
So if they give more business, they become Platinum category. Then there's Gold category. Below that, Silver category is launched. So it is all the things about whatever volume you are giving and what is the incremental volume as compared to last year. These are the two basic criteria that gives incentive to our customers.
Sure sir.
Thank you very much and wish your t eam, a happy Diwali.
Thank you very much. Same to you and your team.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Sumit Kishore from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Thank you so much for taking my question. In your opening remarks you mentioned that Exim volume growth of 3.5% was pretty much in line with India's international trade growth. Export growth of 1%, import growth of 6%. So for the second half when we are expecting a strong double digit growth, what sort of macro export import growth numbers you are thinking about for the country to grow at which if they don't materialize your guidance would be at risk?
See, I can talk about only CONCOR. I think honorable Commerce Minister will be the. You can ask this question to him. But as far as my business is concerned, I have already highlighted the growth drivers and I am focusing on that. Of course it is all driven by the policies of Government of India. So we are hopeful to achieve our target whatever gave to us at the start of financial year.
So, I think the objective was to basically check if all-India export-import growth were in a similar range. Your growth drivers won't get impacted as much. You would still manage your double-digit.
Growth because of Varnama and other, you.
No, initiatives that you have outlined.
Yeah, I think that is what I meant also.
That's very clear. The second question you know is on the double stacking numbers that you have given. 11.5% growth and 3,083 rakes being double stacked. What percentage of your overall rake movement on the DFC now is, is double stacked? The idea is to understand how much of the potential of double stacking has already been tapped when it comes to say Mundra. I know JNPT would still be pending but this question is more to understand what potential of double stacking has already been tapped by CONCOR.
See if you see on DFC we are giving double stack benefit at Mundra, and so I can say that total volume that we are running on DFC around 70%-75% is double stacked.
Okay, so pretty much this is a fairly high level of double stacking which has already been achieved.
Yes, that's right.
Thank you so much. Those are my questions.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Akshay Ajmera from Nuvama Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
I think this conference call is for one hour or more.
Hello.
So we'll take this as the last question.
Am I audible, sir?
Yes, yes you are.
Yeah. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Sir, this question is regarding the news announcement made by our Commerce Minister Mr. Piyush Goyal in September. And I think this question was already taken up by you, but a part of it I want to understand more from you on that press conference which was basically to facilitate, you know, increase or ease of doing for the exporters of our country. So the intent was to reduce the tariffs and provide logistic solutions to them. How do you see this going forward? Because the intent of the government is to give and pass on benefits to the exporter so that they can, you know, export more at the same time to reduce the logistic cost.
This has been reiterated by the government and ministers of the government various times that their intention is to reduce the overall logistics cost in this country. So how do you see this pressure coming to you in terms of reducing cost, passing on the cost benefit? Like you are talking about double stacking, DFC and all these things. But how. How this will improve the margins? Because I think it can. It can give us some volume. But at the same time, whatever cost is, you know, there you have to pass on to the customer. And in the same meeting they have also slashed your empty container charges. Handling charges. This is what we have read from the news article. So if you can, you know, clarify about how much impact you had it and what is. What is your thinking on their intentions going forward.
Thank you so much. Yes.
See now actually as far as the empty storage charges, as I clarified earlier, they are 90 days free at all our terminals. For the last one year they were not done after this meeting. And secondly, the handling charges we had reduced only at one terminal, that is Dronagiri. At all other terminals the handling charges remain the same. We have not reduced it.
Then what would be the potential impact of that? Because the volume is come from Dronagiri, if I'm not wrong.
How much p ercent?
33% of our volumes.
No, no, no, no. Dronagiri hardly contributes less than 1% of our volume. Yeah, it is nothing actually. So at present the impact is zero. There is no impact at all. And because we are yet to receive empty containers from shipping lines at our Dronagiri terminal which is near JNPT so we have not started getting the container. So impact is zero. So we are expecting in the next 10-15 days they will be using this facility. Then we will get some revenue. Because imagine we were not getting any revenue. Now at least we will get some revenue. So it will be gain for the company. It will not be a loss for the company. Media article was giving some other impression. So I wanted to clarify it now to all of you.
That it will be gain for the company that from zero revenue we are going to get some revenue. Apart from that, for the last one year we have started a scheme of 25% concession on empty container movement from Gateway ports to hinterland ICDs. This was done to promote the exports. But we were offsetting this concession in terms of some charges that we had at terminals. And we are continuing with those charges. So there's no loss of margin on that account. And because of the more empty container movement at our terminals, because of these concessions, we were getting exports, additional exports. So it will be additional. It was additional income for the company. That is quite evident in our numbers. Also as I told you, we have increased our market share but we have not sacrificed our margins.
Margins have also increased and market share has also increased. This is because of the policy that company has been following. We don't believe in sacrificing our margin to gain market share. We believe in giving good service to our customers. So that customer stays with us. Despite there are some, we may be expensive but our service that we give to customer is of international standards. So remember we evacuate the containers from the ports immediately. The dwell time is less than 30 hours. Whereas our competitors' dwell time is 30 days. So there is a huge gap between service levels. So customer is willing to pay more to get good service. So that has been the philosophy of our company, and that will remain for future also.
Thank you very much. Due to time constraint. That was the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to Ms. Bhoomika Nair for closing comments. Thank you. And over to you, ma'am. Yeah.
Thank you, everyone, and particularly the management for giving us an opportunity to host the call, and wishing you all the very best and a very happy Diwali s ir.
Thank you very much. To you and your team.
On behalf of DAM Capital Advisors Limited. That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.