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Mr Gautam Adani

Virendra Pandit

Ahmedabad, June 11

The Adani Group Chairman, Mr Gautam Adani has docked into the Power 100 list of TradeWinds, a leading Norwegian publication focused on shipping business, making him the only Indian and port infrastructure developer to be cited as one of the 100 most influential people worldwide in the shipping trade. The inclusion is based on assessment of individuals who have made the contemporary global shipping industry what it is today, those whose decisions will fashion changes in the decades to come. The list primarily takes shipowners in to account and is based on the number of vessels and carrying capacity owned by them, a spokesperson of the Group said here.

The list also includes six Indian companies, of which, five are owners of large fleets. They are the public sector Shipping Corporation of India (over 120 vessels), Essar Group (27 ships), Great Eastern Shipping (4.2 million DWT capacity), Varun Shipping, a group which entered the shipping business in the early 1970s, and Mercator Lines, a shipping company with nearly two dozen ships of varying sizes.

Mundra port

The only person from India whose name appears, at No 88, in the Power 100 list for developing shipping related infrastructure, specifically ports, is Mr Gautam Adani, who is credited with setting up a modern port at Mundra in Kutch district of Gujarat on the west coast of India. Capable of handling capsize ships, Mundra was voted as the best port in 2006 by the Lloyd's List, one of the oldest British publications in the shipping business. The Adani Group has placed orders for four capsize bulk carriers which can carry cargo like coal, iron ore, grains etc. at a cost of over Rs 1,200 crore. These ships are being built at the facility owned and operated by Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Company Ltd, South Korea, a leading ship-builder in the world. Two of these ships are expected to start sailing by January 2011, and to carry coal cargo from captive mines in Indonesia to feed Adani's power plants at Mundra.

The Adanis are also building the world's largest coal import terminal capable of handling over 60 million MT of coal per annum as well as a coal-based thermal power generation facility capable of producing 4,620 MW of power.

The port will also feed Tata's UMPP of 4,000 MW which is under construction at Mundra. Besides, the Group is also developing jetties at Dahej and Hazira in Gujarat and Marmugaon in Goa. The Adani Group is expected to handle over 200 million MT of cargo at its ports by 2020.

Recently, in his quest for coal and ports abroad, Mr Adani met President Jacob Zuma of South Africa. The Adani Group, which has placed trial orders, is also the first in India to be working out modalities to bring coal of Columbian origin for power generation.

More Stories on : People | Shipping/Ports

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