Infrastructure India (IIP) has released the following update with respect to its largest holding, Distribution Logistics Infrastructure Limited (DLI), and covid-19.
“During the first quarter of the calendar year, DLI performed well, with increased revenue and lower quarter on quarter costs and timely project completion. Construction at Nagpur, including a private freight terminal and additional warehousing, is now complete and operations at the new facilities have been ramping up. Works are progressing at Bangalore and Palwal with both sites expecting initial operations to commence in Q2 2020. At Chennai, DLI is working through regulatory approvals and completion of the terminal remains on target for the end of 2020.”
Covid-19 update
“The primary market impact of the global pandemic at present has been an overall reduction in the flow of export-import goods between India and China and changes in the flow of goods has had an impact on the cycling balance of containers.
Reduced movements of goods and raw materials between China and India has impacted some of DLI’s customers’ inventories and therefore production and shipping. The changes in the balance of movements of goods, as a result of the global pandemic, are resulting in bottlenecks as empty containers need to be repositioned to meet domestic and export shipments. In particular, a current lack of available empty containers is having an impact on Indian hinterland exporters.
The group anticipates that this trend will become more evident across the Indian domestic market, which imports raw materials from China, in the near term.
It is too early for the board to quantify the potential future impacts of the global pandemic. Despite the progress at its terminals made during Q1 2020, DLI management anticipate ongoing volatility with freight volume and container cycles, given the current and potential future impacts of the global pandemic.”
IIP: Update from Infrastructure India