Indian port operator, Essar Ports Ltd., part of the Essar group, announced on April 18 its audited results for the year ended March 2013. Net Profit for FY13 increased five times to Rs. 331.6 crore (US$61 million) from Rs. 64.0 crore (US$12 million) in FY12.

Revenue for FY13 increased by 27% to Rs.1434.6 crore  (US$266 million) to from Rs. 1131.1 crore (US$210 million) in FY12.Essar Ports reported also the highest-ever cargo handled in a year at 54.52 million tonnes, up from 43.23 million tonnes in FY12, an increase of 26%.

Essar Ports Ltd. has a current capacity of 104 million tonnes per year. The capacity is to be expanded to 158 million tonnes per year over the next few years.

Essar Ports has three operational terminals in India at Hazira, Vadinar and Paradip. The Hazira port is an all-weather, deep-draft port with 30 million tonnes per year of dry bulk and break bulk cargo handling capacity. Vadinar is also an all-weather, deep-draft port with 58 million tonnes per year of liquid cargo handling capacity. Paradip dry bulk terminal was commissioned in December 2012 and is an all-weather, deep-draft port with 16 million tonnes per year of dry bulk cargo handling capacity.

Essar Ports is currently developing one terminal at Paradip, which will be a coal berth of 14 million tonnes per year. The company is also setting up a dry bulk terminal at Salaya with a capacity of 20 million tonnes per year. Additionally, the company plans to expand its Hazira Port capacity by 20 million tonnes per year, taking its capacity to 50 million tonnes per year.

Essar is a multinational conglomerate with operations in more than 25 countries across five continents, the group has revenues of US$27 billion.

Source: Essar Ports