Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Q3 FY 2025 post-earnings call of Gujarat Pipavav Port Limited. I'm Manish Agnihotri, Company Secretary, and along with me, I have Girish Aggarwal, Managing Director, and Santosh Breed, CFO. We will start with the opening remarks by Girish, and then we'll open the floor for Q&A. Over to you, Girish.
Good morning, everyone. The revenue for the quarter, in comparison with the previous year, was lower by 3%, essentially due to lower container and fertilizer volume. Our total expenditures for the quarter were higher by 13% due to higher bulk handling expenses and one-off expenses incurred during the quarter. Excluding one-offs of INR 117 million, the total expenditure was higher by 2% due to higher operating expenses and annual salary increments. The one-off expenses of INR 117 million are related to R&M, mangrove restoration, one-time IT infrastructure enhancements, and employee benefits. Our EBITDA margins were lower by 600 basis points due to higher expenses. Excluding one-offs, the margin was lower by 200 basis points. EBIT was lower by 17%. Excluding one-offs, the EBIT was lower by 9%. Container volumes overall were lower by 13% due to the continued Red Sea impact.
As compared to the preceding quarter, the volume run rate is consistent. Bulk volumes were marginally lower by 4% from the previous year. As compared to the preceding quarter, the volumes have increased by 58% due to higher fertilizer imports. Liquid and RORO businesses continue to deliver extremely strong performances, with volume growth of 22% in liquids and 53% in RORO. Both the businesses have delivered their highest-ever quarterly volumes in this quarter. For nine months, revenue, EBITDA, and EBIT are flat. We have taken a tariff increase of 5%, which was implemented with effect from January 25. Considering commercial contracts with customers, it is expected that this will result in a revenue increase of 2% to 3%. From an outlook perspective, the container business continues with a run rate of 175,000 to 180,000 TEUs, and this trend is expected to continue in the coming quarter.
Liquid volumes are expected to continue with strong performance, maintaining our annual volume expectation of 1.4 million metric tons. RORO volumes continue again with strong performance, with an annual expectation in the range of 155,000 to 160,000 cars. Thank you.
Thank you, Girish. We now open the floor for questions. Yeah, Deepak, please go ahead.
Hi, hi, Girish and Manish. Thank you for taking for the initial remarks. I had a couple of questions on the outlook for container shipping. So last quarter, when we spoke, we did mention that sequentially we should see some improvement in the container volumes because, yes, the loss of the Jade Service definitely will have an overhang on the year-on-year. But on the quarter-on-quarter trends, we could see some improvement given that the service calls are stabilizing post the Red Sea. So, I mean, but this quarter, we did see that it was flattish quarter-on-quarter. So maybe if you could guide on where we expected to rebound or recover.
Yeah, so I think as we spoke last quarter, we saw green shoots. We moved up from about 165,000 TEUs, if I'm not mistaken, to about 178,000, 179,000 TEUs in the last quarter. That has been maintained. Usually, the monsoon quarter is a little bit seasonally also high. The fact that we've maintained, I think, continues to give me positive signals. I believe as we move forward, the Red Sea crisis is getting potentially behind us. We are seeing or hearing good news. We'll see how that goes. But again, from our perspective, this quarter, we believe we will be in similar ranges of about the 180,000 TEU mark. But as we move forward, I believe things should improve. Notwithstanding, I mean, the risk, of course, is the tariffs that are coming our way. We'll see how that plays out. Or tariffs that may potentially come our way.
We'll see how that plays out.
Okay, okay, and when I look at the bulk volumes, I think the quarter-on-quarter improvement was likely because the tenders opened for fertilizer, and then that started to flow through, so do you expect this to sustain during this current quarter, the last quarter of this financial year, or should we expect these volumes to taper?
Some of these volumes will taper. This, of course, as you rightly said, the tenders opened up. There was clearly the inventory in the country on fertilizer was extremely low, and the government really pushed a lot more import volumes in this quarter. Expect some tapering off of the fertilizer volume in the January to March quarter, so I would expect some decline in the volumes.
Okay, and if we could also have some color on the realizations range, which you give by cargo category typically every quarter, that will be very helpful.
Sure. So for the container, the range is in the range of 8,400-8,900 TEU.
Okay.
For bulk, it's in the range of 450-700.
Okay.
And for liquid, again, in the range of 450-700.
As well. Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. And with respect to the operating margin, the EBITDA margins, right, you mentioned that even excluding the one-off expenses, we did see a marginal dip. Is that because of the higher mix of fertilizers in the cargo?
Yeah, that's right. That's right. Because of the high fertilizer.
Okay. Okay.
That's also the container. Yes.
Okay, okay.
In the cargo mix sector, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Okay. Thanks for that. And the statutory update on the concession renewal, if you can.
No, so I think, again, everything looks okay. We recently again met the relevant leadership in the Government of Gujarat. Again, no red flags that have been flagged. So I would expect things are moving in the right direction. But from a timeline perspective, it's difficult for us to comment on that.
Okay. One last question before I fall back in the queue, a very quick one. We usually have the dredging expenses coming through every two, two and a half years. Are we about there? And if so, could you guide what could be the dredging-related expenses in the coming quarters or months?
So we are undertaking studies right now. So it will be difficult to right now give any number because studies will tell us on the quantum that is required. But we do expect some dredging costs.
Some dredging costs to come in this quarter, but not the entire maintenance. We expect to dredge one of our berths, but a small dredge, not too much in this quarter. But maybe after this quarter, we'll talk about the further maintenance dredging cost.
Okay. Is it fair to expect that the dredging-related substantial part of the expense will come in the next fiscal year?
Yes.
Okay. Thank you. Maybe I'll take a pause here and then see if any other analysts have any questions. I'll come back if I have. Thank you.
Sure. Thank you. Priyankar, please go ahead.
Yes. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is regarding your liquids berth that you are expanding. How far are we through the CapEx on that? And when do you expect the commissioning of that? If you can answer that first.
So the commissioning is expected now, roughly, I would say, Q2 next fiscal year. We're still in the regulatory approval process. Once the regulatory approvals are granted, we will get started. We expect now to start Q1 next fiscal.
So Q1 next fiscal is essentially the construction you are expecting, or is it just the approval you will get?
Yeah, we expect to start our constructions between April, May, and June 2025.
Okay. Given that we are seeing quite a large increase in volumes that have happened in liquids and they're being higher margins, what sort of outlook do you see if I have to, let's say, ask you in a slightly longer term, like two, three years? Because what I understand is your port will also get connected to some part of the Kandla-Gorakhpur Pipeline as well eventually. If you can comment on that outlook.
Of course. I think clearly there will be a substantial improvement in volumes on the liquid. That is one big reason that we are going in for additional liquid jetty. We are connected to the KGP. Hopefully, that gets started. We believe in the month of April, between April and June is what we hear at this point in time. One of our partners, Aegis, is already in the process of commissioning additional 48,000 metric tons of storage capacity. That should also come in line between April and June. The new liquid jetty, we've said, is about 3.2 million metric tons. So I would expect at least over the next three years, at least additional half of potentially double our liquid volumes. That's how we see it over the next three years.
That's great to hear. And if I can squeeze in, can you also similarly, let's say, give us an outlook for the RORO from a more longer-term point of view? Because what we are seeing is that RORO usually did not use to have high volumes earlier. In this last one and a half year, we are seeing this volume upsurge. So what is the eventual journey for this? I mean, what is driving this volume growth at an underlying level? If you can just elaborate a bit on that and maybe two, three years outlook, if you can give.
Yeah, I think the underlying is Make in India. Essentially today, manufacturers like Honda and Suzuki are using capacities that exist in India. In fact, Maruti, you would have heard, is already building up new capacities both in Haryana as well as Gujarat. They are now exporting to not only Middle East and Africa, but also to Japan. You would have heard that. Honda is using its capacity in its Rajasthan plant more for exports. There's clearly potential capacities there. Rather than using it for domestic, it's more on the export side. So is Maruti Suzuki. We believe that this is a structural story in India. It will continue to grow. If I'm not mistaken, Maruti has already announced that by 2030, they should be in a position to export 700,000-800,000 cars between them. They also do manufacturing for Toyota, if you know.
So I think it's a structural growth story. From our perspective, as I said, for this fiscal, we'll do about 155,000-160,000 cars. We believe that this will continue to grow over the next three years. If you ask me, I believe it should double from there.
That's nice. And just if I can squeeze one more in, when you said that there was a 5% price hike taken in January, so is it for containers only, or is it across the board that you are highlighting?
Across the board.
Okay. So that's all from my side. If I have some questions, I will come back.
Thank you.
Thank you, Priyankar. Achal, please go ahead with your questions.
Yeah, good morning, team. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, two questions. If you could repeat once again, sorry, I missed the early part. One off, if you could quantify the nature.
So, INR 117 million. The nature is R&M, repairs and maintenance, one-time mangrove restoration cost, one-time IT infrastructure enhancements that we have done for the port, and employee benefits.
Understood. Understood. And the second question, in terms of the EXIM, while you've obviously given some indication already for the fourth quarter, in terms of the outlook, is it fair to say that India port volumes are probably growing at 5-6%, or is it 9-10%? And what would be the transshipment mix according to you?
Transshipment mix in the India volume or in?
India volume.
India volume, sir.
I think the transshipment is high in one of the terminals in Mundra. We have seen Vizhinjam now coming up. So let's see how that develops. But overall, I think, I mean, the India market is slated to grow by equal to the GDP. So anywhere between 5%-7% growth, most in around the 5%-6% growth. So we expect that kind of growth in the container volumes as well.
Understood. And if I were to ask you in the last nine months, what would the volume growth be for the country as a whole and if possible for the EXIM cargo? Is it the same range, 5%-7% EXIM cargo growth, or it's more than that?
It's not handy with me at this point in time, but it should be in similar ranges.
So effectively, we have kind of maintained our market share. Is that a fair assumption, sir?
No. Our market shares have declined.
Market shares have declined. Okay. And would you be able to quantify how much would that be, like from port to port?
So overall, India market share now is at around 4%. If I'm not mistaken, it was 4.5% earlier.
This you are talking about, sir, nine months or just the third quarter?
Nine months.
Nine months. Okay. That's very helpful, sir. The other question I had, in terms of the, is there a case of port pendency of containers at the port? We are hearing that there is, while the DFC leg is working fine, there are constraints at the port end in terms of rail movement. Just wanted to hear your thoughts on the same, sir.
So you're saying there is congestion at the port end?
Yeah, port. There are containers pending at the port to be removed.
No, not at all. Our tendency will probably be the lowest in the Northwest India for sure.
Is it possible to get a number? What would that tendency be? How do you define what number would usually be and what?
No, no. I don't have that handy, but I can tell you there's no congestion at our port.
There is no congestion. Lovely. Yeah. So I think those are my questions at this stage. I'll fall back in the queue for any further questions. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Achal. Nidhi Shah, please go ahead.
Thank you so much for taking my question. So firstly, on the question that someone else asked about the growth in liquids, so with Aegis Vopak coming in and also the Kandla Pipeline, the Kandla-Gorakhpur Pipeline.
Sorry to interject, Nidhi, but it's difficult to understand what you're saying. I don't know. Maybe it's not very clear. Can you try again?
Is it better now?
Yes.
Am I audible now?
Yes.
Yes. So basically, I wanted to ask about the liquids only. So, given the Kandla-Gorakhpur Pipeline that is coming up and also the expansion that is being done, do we expect that the current volumes that we have in, say, in LPG could double within two years?
Sorry, within two to three years. As I said, I mean, we expect the liquid jetty to come, the new liquid jetty to come online in Q2 fiscal 26, I mean, 26, 27, right? So after that, in a couple of years, we should expect our overall volumes to double.
Out of the total liquids that the port currently handles, how much of that would be LPG? If you could possibly have that number on hand.
So roughly around 60% is LPG, and the rest is other liquids .
Yes, 60%-65% will be LPG.
All right. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you. Parth Thakkar, can you please go ahead?
Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Good morning. I just missed the opening remarks where you gave us the guidance for the full year. So can you just repeat that for container, liquid, and RORO volumes, and also the realization?
You want the outlook for volumes for this fiscal year?
Yes. This and next fiscal year also, if you provide it.
Next fiscal, we'll talk about next quarter. But for this fiscal, we expect RORO volumes in the range of 155,000-160,000 cars. Liquid, expect annual volumes at 1.4 million metric tons. The container business, we expect to be again 175,000-180,000 TEUs in the coming quarter.
Okay. And did you also provide the guidance or realizations for this full year or the guidance or the realizations that you provided for this quarter?
So the guidance was for the. It was only for this quarter. So that's the range what we have given.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Those were my questions.
Okay. Thank you. Anybody else have any questions? Yeah, Achal, please go ahead.
Sir, just a quick question. Of the total revenue, how much would be dollar denominated or dollar linked for us?
Almost those 60%-65% will be dollar denominated.
We don't do any hedging, right?
No.
Got it. That's all. Thank you.
Thank you. Bharanidhar, please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you. So I wanted to understand the fact that for the first 10 months in the country, the container volume growth, be it on the major port side or for our competitor, is at a high level of 10%-12%. And in that period, we have market share also as we mentioned. So two questions. So one, what is driving this container volume growth in India, especially when we have seen economic slowdown according to you? And also, what is the reason for the market share loss?
So we never said economic slowdown, but per media, our point of view was that the services that we're handling got impacted by Red Sea, and that has led to the loss. Plus, there was a network change where Jade Service was pulled out from the network by Maersk, and that entire volume was lost. So we never said or talked about the economic slowdown.
I didn't tell that you mentioned the economic slowdown. I'm just wondering if the country is seeing some slowdown. That's what was GDP numbers and several other, say, companies and sectors are indicating. I'm just wondering how container volumes are growing at 10% on the country level. It's more like a macro growth.
Okay. No, so from our perspective, our point of view was that we lost market share because of the reasons that I mentioned. In terms of growth, there are multiple reasons for growth. Some of them are related to, as somebody else was talking about, is the transshipment increase. I mean, this 10% increase is overall across the board. There is clearly a transshipment increase in Vizhinjam. There are new ports that have opened up, which are taking some volume. There are also, of course, volume increases in terms of the GDP growth of the country, which are going to countries, ports like Mundra and Nhava Sheva.
Got it. Understood. And when you're talking about this 5% tariff increase and the realizations that you gave, so is it fair to assume that all these realizations will be up by 5% that you mentioned next year?
No, we said 2%-3% because of existing contracts with existing customers.
Okay, so net increase would be 2%-3% at the revenue level?
We expect a net increase of 2%-3%, yeah.
Okay. Thank you so much. That's it from my side.
Thank you. Mr. Vipulkumar Shah, please go ahead. Mr. Vipulkumar Shah. Mr. Parimal, please go ahead.
Can you hear me?
Yeah.
Yeah. So if you can just give us in terms of guidance over the next two, three years, how do you see your business panning out? And in terms of your liquid business and RORO, how do you see it going forward? I'm sorry, I joined late.
Sorry, I missed that. But Parimal, you are asking the volume outlook for the next three years?
Yeah, three years. So how do you see your business going ahead in terms of your liquid and RORO?
Yeah, we talked about it. Both liquid and RORO, I expect, no, no problem. I'll repeat. In liquid and RORO, we expect over the next three years to double our volumes from where we are today.
And the liquid jetty will come in Q2, right? So on Q2.
Fiscal, yeah. Fiscal Q2.
Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thanks for all the—
Next fiscal, sorry, just to be clear.
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Aditya Mongia, please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. Firstly, just clarifying, on the bulk side of things, we've obviously probably going to see a decline this year. And I understand the high base effect over here. But how to think through this segment over the medium term? We talked about other segments, but not on bulk as much. So apologies if I missed it, but if you could give us thoughts on the moving parts over there from an FY 2026, FY 2027 perspective.
Look, I think FY—I would say FY 2026, 2026, 2027, two years from now. Not 25. Okay. No, I think for us, bulk has been a stable commodity in the range of 2.5-3.5 million. I would expect similar ranges. There is a potential possibility of some increases, maybe next fiscal, probably. But it's early to say. We'll probably talk about that in the next quarter, after the next quarter's results, when we talk to you. But I would just argue that bulk could be a stable business for us in terms of volumes.
Understood. The next question that I had was more on the container side of things. So you said there's certain new ports that started to impact. Are they impacting our business? And if so, which are these ports that are becoming more relevant?
Yeah. I didn’t understand the question, Aditya.
I think somewhere in your commentary, you talked about the market share loss for you also happening because of new ports on the container side coming up. Are they actually coming up in our vicinity, or how do you?
No, no, no, no. So the India, I mean, this is the overall India share that I talked about, right? So there was a drop in the overall market share. But that's because of the growth that has happened across, as somebody else also pointed out. But our numbers have declined because of the Red Sea impact as well as the network change. So that's the reason for the declining market share.
Does the Red Sea impact us substantially more than three years? How to think through that?
Yes. I mean, it of course depends on the services one carries, right? So, for us, one of the services was Maersk's premier service, which did not use the Red Sea. Most of the businesses, like we spoke actually last time as well, the tonnage had to be diverted into that sector, and it was taken out. For example, OOCL, COSCO services, the ships were extremely high relative to the last year, essentially because of the tonnage taken out from India but put onto the Red Sea. Because of the Red Sea, the capacity had to be kind of matched.
Understood. Maybe the final question on margins over here. Just trying to get a sense from you as in 2-3% realization increase that is happening. Is it sufficient to maintain margins beyond the 50% mark? How should we think through?
I think certainly helping improve the margin of this because, as you know, the container business, mainly we have subsidized the fixed costs. So any increase in top line certainly helps to have impact on the margins.
Understood. So 2-3% increase takes care of all inflation planned for the year ahead. That's the way to understand it.
That's yeah. Yeah.
Got it. Those were my questions. Thanks for your responses. Thank you.
Thank you. Any last questions from anyone? Yeah. Koundinya, please go ahead.
Yeah. So just one question. This INR 117 million, one of it you spoke of, is it part of the other expenses, or is it spread across?
It's spread across.
Spread across. Understood. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. Any further questions? Mr. Vipulkumar Shah, please go ahead.
Yeah. Am I audible, sir?
Yes, sir. Please go ahead.
Yeah. I just wanted the capacity of our new upcoming liquid jetty.
3.2 million metric tons.
What is the existing capacity, sir?
Existing capacity overall is 2.1 million metric tons.
Okay. And that will increase progressively once it is commissioned or means in the first year of commissioning, we'll reach the full capacity?
No, no. Capacity will be the installed capacity as we commission will be 3.1, the new one. Both the usage will progressively improve, right?
Usage of new capacity will not be 100% in the first year itself, right? Is that understanding, correct?
Correct.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Any questions from anybody else? Doesn't seem to be the case. Thank you very much for joining and have a good day.
Thank you so much, everyone. Thank you.