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Informist, Tuesday, May 26, 2026

By Avishek Rakshit and Ruchira Kagita

KOLKATA/MUMBAI – Amid the West Asian crisis which impacted global shipping and logistics, Container Corp. of India is targeting a 9.5% on-year growth in overall volume in the current financial year, in tune with a similar growth it achieved in the year ended March, a top company official said Tuesday. 

However, the company is banking mostly on domestic cargo handling to lead the targeted growth in 2026-27 (Apr-Mar). It is on account of the war in West Asia which does not seem to head towards any resolution soon. After the US-Israel jointly attacked Iran, the latter blockaded the Strait of Hormuz choking crucial shipping lines. The US followed it up with its own blockade of the strait. 

The company sees its export-import cargo logistics handling volumes growing 8% on year and its domestic volume growth at 15% in FY27. "Of course, I'm a bit conservative because of the various geopolitical factors which are right now present," a senior company official told sector analysts in its post earnings conference call.

The official said that the company will revisit its guidance towards the latter half of the current financial year when more clarity on global shipping disruptions emerge and there is more intelligibility on demand for domestic cargo movement. 

During the quarter ended March, the company's cargo shipping volumes were tepid as exports from India, especially those of marine products and textiles, took a hit owing to the exorbitant tariffs imposed by the US on Indian imports and the West Asian crisis. After the US imposed stiff tariffs on its trade with India, demand for Indian goods fell in the US which hit exporters and their shipment volumes. In turn, Container Corp.'s volumes also took a hit as the company ships these products to the ports for further movement to the US. 

Also, its cargo moving volumes were negatively impacted following the student movement in Bangladesh which toppled the then government and created trade and other uncertainties in the region. 

"Because of the disturbance in our neighbouring country, we could not get the supply of jute, and gunny bales were the major domestic loading commodity in eastern India," the company official said. "And because of the no supply of jute or less supply of jute, the gunny bale traffic was very severely affected. This affected our top line in domestic as well as bottom line." India imports gunny bales from Bangladesh which are converted into gunny bags and other jute items in India and then sold globally. 

The shortage of gas supplies in the tile making industry in Gujarat following the Iran war also impacted the domestic cargo movement of Container Corp. "The second reason was the tiles industry. In Morbi (in Gujarat), almost all the tile factories were closed because of the no supply of gas. These two commodities are big commodities contributing in domestic (cargo movement volume)," the official said. "Now slowly both the commodities are getting revived. So, we are quite positive."

The official said that after a tepid cargo movement in March and April, he is seeing some positive traction in May. The company is also in talks with GAIL and Petronet to handle their cargo movement, the official said.

Optimist about these trends, the company is aiming to maintain its usual 24-25% earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation growth in FY27, the official said. The company is also aiming to reduce the tariff for its customers in some railway lines which it hopes will help pull in more customers.

The company's market share dropped in FY26, and the management said this was largely owing to the company not picking up some low margin businesses in some segments. Its overall market share dropped to 54.5% in FY26 from 55.9% in FY25, with its share in the export-import segment falling to 53.9% in FY26 from 55.2% in FY25. 

Container Corp. of India Ltd. on Monday posted a double-digit year-on-year fall in its net profit for the March quarter, as the company's total expenses declined at a slower pace than revenue. The company's net profit and revenue fell short of analysts' estimates. The state-owned company's bottom line fell year-on-year for a second consecutive quarter in Jan-Mar, while the revenue from operations declined after three quarters of growth.

The company's net profit for the March quarter fell nearly 15% on year to INR 2.58 billion. Sequentially, the net profit declined by almost 22%. Analysts had pegged the company's bottom line for the quarter at INR 3.17 billion.

The company's revenue from operations declined 1.1% on year and 2.0% sequentially to INR 22.57 billion in Jan-Mar. Analysts had expected the company to report revenue of INR 23.27 billion during the quarter. At 1342 IST, shares of the company traded over 7% lower at INR 475.35 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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