India's JSW Infra Q3 profit doubles on higher cargo volumes, tariffs

BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's No.2 private port operator JSW Infrastructure reported a more-than-two-fold surge in third-quarter profit on Friday, boosted by a rise in cargo volumes and higher tariffs.

The company's consolidated net profit rose to 2.51 billion rupees (about $30 million) in the October-December quarter, from 1.15 billion rupees a year ago, sending the shares up by 4%.

Port operators like JSW Infrastructure benefitted from increased cargo movement in and out of the country in the quarter, amid buoyant commercial activity and festive-period demand.

Higher transit costs, passed onto customers as tariff hikes, also helped. Global freight rates recovered 7% sequentially in November after October's slump, according to brokerage Jefferies.

JSW Infrastructure's revenue from operations climbed 18% to 9.40 billion rupees in the December quarter.

Cargo volumes handled by the company rose 17% to 28.10 million tons, helped by higher capacity utilisation at its iron ore and coal terminals at Paradip and Mangalore.

Addition of new ports and facilities boosted its cargo handling capacity to 170 million tons per annum (MTPA), more than half of its 2030 target of 300 MTPA.

Investments by the JSW Group company in ports and logistics may bring "healthy" returns, brokerage Kotak Securities had said earlier, as it seeks to take on larger rival Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone.

The Adani Group's ports arm posted a bigger third-quarter profit on Thursday.

($1 = 82.9075 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)