Walmart spurs Transport Corp’s spending on logistics

Transport Corp of India, the nation’s third-largest logistics company, plans its biggest investment in five years to prepare for a jump in freight demand as retailers such as Walmart Stores Inc open outlets.

The company will spend Rs 150 crore ($28 million) in the year to March 31 to add more trucks and build warehouses, Joint Managing Director Vineet Agarwal said in an interview. The spending may help Transport Corp’s supply chain division, which offers warehousing and packaging, to expand more than 20 per cent annually through 2017, he said.

The operator plans to add 1,000 more trucks in five years, Agarwal said, as India’s decision to allow foreign investment in retail stores will help create more supermarkets and boost transportation of farm and factory products. Deutsche Post AG’s DHL Supply Chain last week said it would invest euro 100 million ($131 million) to strengthen operations in the country.

“Once overseas investments start coming into retail sector, it’ll help Transport Corp,” said Rajni Ghildiyal, an analyst with Asit C Mehta Investment Interrmediates Ltd. “The strategy to place itself as a supply chain solutions provider will help it exploit the potential.”

Transport Corp rose 0.9 per cent to Rs 64.9 in Mumbai today. The stock declined 13 per cent in the past year, making it the worst performer on the 29-company Bloomberg Industries Express & Courier Services index after Hanjin Transportation Co.

Sales at Transport Corp’s supply chain division rose 21 per cent to Rs 580 crore in the year ended March 31, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The business contributed about 30 per cent of total sales, up from 14 per cent four years ago.

‘Cold reefers’
“There’ll be investments in farmgate infrastructure once foreign supermarkets set up shop,” Agarwal said in New Delhi. “At that point, a certain amount of logistics, including cold reefers and dry goods movement, will be required. We’re prepared to handle that.”

Last month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government allowed overseas retailers such as Walmart and Carrefour SA to own as much as 51 per cent in supermarket ventures. Singh also cut energy subsidies, allowed foreign airlines to own as much as 49 per cent in local carriers and permitted overseas investment of up to 49 per cent in power exchanges, ending two years of policy gridlock.

Singh’s policy drive prompted ally Trinamool Congress to quit the alliance. Last year, Singh put the plan to ease investment rules for overseas retailers on hold after opposition parties as well as Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee protested.

Walmart might take 12-18 months to open retail stores in India, Scott Price, its head of Asia operations, said on September 21. The world’s biggest retailer has been building a supply chain and logistics network in the country after forming a venture with billionaire Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Enterprises to operate wholesale outlets.

Computer systems
Entry of foreign supermarket chains will spur investments in warehousing, inventory management and computer systems, according to Zenith International Research & Academic Foundation in India. This will help reduce cost for retailers and boost consumer spending, according to Zenith.

The size of the logistics industry in the country is $90 billion to $125 billion, according to a study by Deloitte in India and the Indian Chamber of Commerce. Investments in logistics infrastructure may drive economic growth this decade, according to the study. Logistics accounts for 13 per cent of the nation’s gross domestic product.

DHL Supply Chain said on October 16 it would add five million square feet of warehousing space in eight cities including Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai. The company also plans to upgrade its fleet of vehicles, it said in a statement.

Congested highways
Transport Corp’s profit may rise as much as 15 per cent this financial year, Agarwal said. That’ll be the slowest pace of growth in four years, according to Bloomberg data.

The company’s operating margin increased to 6.1 per cent in the year ended March 31 from 5.8 per cent a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Sales in the period expanded at 5.5 per cent, slower than the 22 per cent expansion in the year earlier period, the data show.

Transporters have to contend with congested highways in India, where infrastructure is ranked worse than Guatemala’s by the World Economic Forum. Traffic snarls cost Asia’s third-biggest economy $5.5 billion annually, according to the Indian Institute of Management in Kolkata and Transport Corp. Trucks take 65 hours to travel the 1,374 kilometres (854 miles) between Mumbai and New Delhi because of traffic and stoppages at toll plazas and state borders.

‘Not enough’
Road construction is lagging behind an August 2009 target of 20 kilometres a day as slowing economic growth and high interest rates discourage builders from bidding for projects.

Prime Minister Singh’s government has targeted a spending of $1 trillion on roads, ports and railways in the five years through 2017. Authorities are also planning to award $2.3 billion of state-funded highway contracts this year.

“Whatever we’re doing is not enough,” Agarwal said. “Work on everything from roads, ports to railways is going very slowly.”