New track

Calcutta, April 3: The Karam Chand Thapar (KCT) group, engaged in coal and bulk logistics, is set to foray into container logistics with its newly set up wholly owned subsidiary — Indicon Logistics.

Indicon Logistics will begin operations from its first container factory in Ranchi from tomorrow.

“We have incurred an expenditure of Rs 40 crore on the Ranchi plant and would like to spend an additional Rs 100 crore in the future to expand our container manufacturing capacity and in building infrastructure,” Varun Thapar, director of Indicon Logistics, said.

The company plans to invest Rs 500 crore over the next three years. The entire funding will come from internal accruals of the KCT group.

“We are comfortable with our present fund situation. The Rs 40 crore raised for the Ranchi plant is done in a debt-equity ratio of 1:2,” said Thapar.

KCT plans to set up several units in the country in the next three years to take advantage of the growing demand in the logistics sector.

“We plan to set up units at places which will be strategically suited to our customers. Further, within this financial year, we are confident of setting up our second facility,” said Thapar.

He, however, refused to comment on the possible locations of the new units.

The Ranchi factory has a capacity to make 1,200 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) containers a month. It is the largest container manufacturing factory in the country at present, Thapar said.

TEU is a unit of cargo capacity, used to describe the capacity of container ships and container terminals.

Total capacity of Indicon Logistics is set to rise to 30,000 TEUs in the next three years.

Besides, the company plans to diversify into the development of logistics infrastructure such as integrated logistics hubs, container freight stations, inland container depots, cold chain and warehousing solutions.

“Our immediate target is to become the market leader in container logistics management in the next few years. Once we successfully cater to the domestic demand, we plan to venture globally,” Thapar added.

The KCT group is primarily engaged in coal and bulk logistics with a net worth of about Rs 1,000 crore.

The group handles about 70 million tonnes of coal movement within the country.