The management of Pakistan International Bulk Terminal (PIBTL) held a Corporate Briefing session on 26th Oct’20 to discuss the FY20 financial result and future outlook.

Highlights:

· To recall, the company posted a Profit after Tax (PAT) of PKR 1,144mn (EPS: PKR 0.64) in FY20 against a Loss after Tax of PKR 2,404mn (LPS: PKR 1.38) in FY19. The profitability comes after a jump in sales by 18% YoY along with 94% YoY fall in exchange loss.

· During FY20 the company managed to handle volumes of 8,630,340 tons compared to 8,553,410 in FY19. Alongside this, the company catered to 152 vessels in FY20 versus 146 vessels in SPLY.

· Moreover, the terminal yard’s coal handling capacity reached 72% during FY20. According to the management capacity utilization could reach 100% in 1 or 2 years keeping in view additional coal powered plants slated to come online in 2 years. The uptick in cement dispatches will increase coal consumption.

· The company handled volumes of 4.7mn, 1.5mn, 0.8mn, 0.7mn and 0.6mn for Cement, Power, Chemical, Textile and Trader, respectively.

· The company informed that during a given month, about 12-15 vessels are handled.

· At present the company has a capacity to handle 12mn tons of coal import and 4mn tons of export of clinker and cement. The company may consider increasing handling of two berths, which will add 6mn ton to existing import handling capacity. However, for this an estimated USD 50-70mn CAPEX has to be incurred. If any plans are materialized then it will take 2-3 years for the expansion to come online.

· The company is adding a conveyer belt to its phase 2 area for which no major CAPEX is required and is expected to come online after 6-8 months.

· The company, in order to lower energy costs, has set up a 15 MW indigenous diesel power plant.

· The company reiterated that the international price of coal does affect the volumes. Lower cost may result in demand for higher volumes and vice versa.

· The company further stated that some power plants in Thar have entered into an agreement to use company’s coal for two-three years.

· Given rail connectivity being on the radar of the Govt., it will help dispatching coal up-country and will decrease transportation cost. (AHL Research)