Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone (APSEZ), the largest port operator in India, hopes to handle 1 billion tonnes of cargo by 2030, tripling the company’s throughput from the last fiscal.

It plans to follow a three-pronged strategy to reach the ambitious target, including expansion of global footprint and building industrial clusters along with ports.

APSEZ, which has 12 ports across the country, handled about 340 million tonnes of cargo in FY2023. It aims to become the world’s largest port operator by volume, chief executive officer Karan Adani told the shareholders.

One of the key strategies for APSEZ would be developing industrial hinterlands across some of the ports by working closely with the state governments. “This will catalyse industrial development and assure port volumes for our company for years to come,” Adani told the shareholders in the latest annual report of the company.

While it was not explained further, Mundra port is the best proof of the concept. The company operates India’s largest port and a special economic zone attached to it in this Gujarat coastal town. In Bengal’s Tajpur, APSEZ will also have the flexibility to build an industrial zone along with a port if and when the project takes off.

APSEZ mentioned in the report that it has received a letter of intent to award for a greenfield port at Tajpur in Bengal but did not give further details.

The other pillar of growth identified by the company is building port capacities outside India. “We will gradually build port interests outside India; we acquired a stake in the Haifa port (in Israel) and are developing a terminal in Colombo Port,” Adani said.

However, APSEZ said it would be cautious in the approach. “Driven by our risk management strategy, the investments outside India are more likely to be in operational ports and with a limited equity exposure in comparison to the overall size of our balance sheet,” Adani explained, adding that APSEZ would also work with a strong local partner with financial skin in the game.

The other vector of growth for the company would be from evolving port intermediaries to doorstep delivery with a larger share of customer’s logistic spending, Adani informed the shareholders.

The strategy is in line with the company’s stated objective to evolve into a transport utility that provides logistics infrastructure and services, ensuring service reliability and efficiency from a mere port operator.

Adani Logistics, a diversified private rail operator, is likely to spearhead growth in this direction. The APSEZ subsidiary operates nine multi modal logistics parks in north, south and west India. The subsidiary intends to develop six more MMLPs across India, coupled with 60 million square ft of warehousing space by FY2026.