Essar Ports Limited is one of the largest private sector port companies in India, by capacity and throughput. It specialises in the development and operations of ports and terminals for handling liquid, dry bulk, break bulk and general cargo. The total capacity of the company’s Indian and overseas port terminals is 150 million tonnes per annum (mtpa). Essar Ports Limited is in the process of enhancing its capacity to over 214 mtpa over the next few years. It plans to do so through the expansion of the Hazira port terminal in Gujarat, the expansion of iron ore berths at the Visakhapatnam Port Trust and the development of a new coal import terminal at the Paradip Port Trust. The new coal import terminal will be the first one at Paradip port which will be capable of handling capesize vessels. Moreover, the company’s Vadinar terminal in Gujarat has received a concession to double its marine facilities and therefore has immense expansion potential. The company is also building an all-weather deep-draught coal and dry bulk terminal at Beira port in Mozambique.
Essar Ports Limited has five operational terminals in India, at Hazira, Vadinar and Salaya in Gujarat on the west coast, and one each in Visakhapatnam and Paradip on the east coast. The Hazira and Vadinar port terminals are all-weather deep-draught port terminals. The Hazira terminal is capable of handling dry bulk and break bulk cargo, while the Vadinar terminal handles liquid cargo. Vadinar port has two single-point mooring facilities, product jetties, storage tanks as well as rail and road gantries. The newly commissioned dry bulk terminal at Salaya has increased its dry bulk cargo handling capacity on the west coast of the country. On the east coast, the Paradip dry bulk terminal is an all-weather deep-draught facility integrated with Essar Steel’s pellet plant and handles dry bulk cargo. The Visakhapatnam terminal caters to iron ore traffic and handles both domestic and export shipments. The overseas port assets of Essar Ports Limited comprise one terminal each in the UK and Canada. The port terminal in the UK is integrated with Essar Oil’s UK refinery in Stanlow, Manchester, while the Canadian port is integrated with the Algoma steel plant in Ontario.