Container Corp Sees 18-20% Volume Growth In FY25, Chairman Says

Container Corporation of India Ltd. expects volume growth in the 18–20% range in the financial year 2025, according to Chairman and Managing Director Sanjay Swarup.

The comment comes on the heels of the company's 11% year-on-year increase in total volumes to 1.24 million twenty-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, in the quarter ended March 2024. The company's export-import and domestic volumes increased by 10% and 16% year-on-year, reaching 0.93 million TEUs and 0.31 million TEUs, respectively.

Volumes were the key growth drivers in the quarter-ended March, Swarup said, attributing the company's growth to steady export-import and domestic volumes.

The company expects export-import volumes to grow at 15% and domestic volumes to grow at 20% in fiscal 2025, he told NDTV Profit.

The higher railway haulage rates posed a major risk to the company's margins. The haulage charge is the amount of money that a company, such as Container Corporation of India, has to pay to use the Indian Railway's infrastructure, such as trains, tracks, signaling, and associated manpower, among other things. Companies pay these surcharges on a per-kilometer basis.

Swarup stated that the industry has absorbed all railway surcharges and passed on the corresponding price hikes to customers. He also ensures that customers are happy to pay extra for the company's services, and Container Corporation of India is confident in maintaining margins of around 25%.

The company is also launching some new products in FY25 that will help drive growth. The company will be starting to load bulk cement into tank containers, Swarup said. The aim is to capture a lot of bulk cement transport in the country, he said.

The company will begin using double-stacked trains for Nhava Sheva Port, he said. It also hopes to establish dedicated freight corridor connectivity to Varnama terminal. Thus, the company will run double-stacked trains from the NCR region to Vadodra, Swarup said.