East Coast Logistics Pvt. Ltd., an associate company of Krishnapatnam Port Co. Ltd., has set targets of ₹100 crore in revenue and 15 million tonnes in cargo for the current fiscal, said a top official.
“In 2016-17, we registered total income of ₹77 crore against ₹52 crore in the previous year,” said said V. Suresh Anand, executive director, East Coast Logistics.
For the last four years, ECL has been growing at about 40% annually. It provides logistics support to 170 clients in South India, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Several traders from Chennai and Gummidipoondi started using Krishnapatnam Port as an alternative base following traffic congestion at Chennai Port.
“The most critical stage of supply chain is the final delivery of cargo to the customer. To retain our customers from as far as Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, we offer efficient transport solutions in bulk container and through rail, consuming lesser time and offer freight rates at reduced rates,” he said.
He added that the next step was to play a leading role in the sector pan India. Also, ECL aims to become one of the largest logistics service providers in road and rail in the South, he said.
ECL’s target of 15 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of cargo compares with 11 MTPA handled in 2016-17. Last fiscal, ECL handled 9.5 million tonnes of coal and one million tonnes of iron ore.
“ECL has started playing a pivotal role as prime carrier in the movement of solar panels for Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka. The world’s biggest solar park is coming at Kurnool. We have distance, cost, service and transport advantage. Rising solar panel imports at the terminal indicates the future potential for it and we are ready to capitalise on it,” he said.
