Gautam Adani-owned Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) is evaluating an entry into container manufacturing, a strategic move that would complete its end-to-end integrated transport utility model and give the company global branding visibility as containers bearing the ‘Adani’ name move across sea and land routes worldwide.
The move would allow India’s largest port operator to reduce dependence on third-party container suppliers while strengthening its “shore-to-door” logistics network that spans ports, rail, trucking, warehousing and last-mile delivery.
The plan is seen as a natural adjacency following the Union Budget announcement on February 1, which allocated ₹10,000 crore over five years to create a globally competitive container manufacturing ecosystem. APSEZ was among the participants at a meeting convened by Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal in Mumbai on Friday to seek industry feedback on the proposed scheme, according to sources.
APSEZ has been aggressively expanding its logistics vertical to diversify revenue streams, with recent forays into freight forwarding and trucking beginning to yield strong results. “The logistics business delivered impressive Q3 FY26 revenue growth of 62 per cent year-on-year, with nine-month FY26 growth at 81 per cent,” the company said while announcing its third-quarter results on February 3.
The logistics business is powered by a mix of asset-light services—trucking and international freight forwarding—and a growing portfolio of physical assets, including multimodal logistics parks (MMLPs), warehouses, container and bulk rakes, and agri-silos across India.
In Q3 FY26, APSEZ’s all-India container market share rose 40 basis points to 45.8 per cent from 45.4 per cent a year earlier. For the nine months ended FY26, container market share increased to 45.6 per cent from 45.2 per cent in the corresponding period last year.
Rail volumes in Q3 FY26 rose 4 per cent year-on-year to 170,466 TEUs, while nine-month rail volumes grew 11 per cent to 528,872 TEUs. Asset-light trucking and international freight services contributed 52 per cent of Q3 FY26 logistics revenue, up sharply from 17 per cent in Q3 FY25.
APSEZ said its fully integrated commercial model delivers the “highest value capture” in the industry by combining originating ports, freight forwarding, destination ports, container rail, MMLPs, warehousing, trucking and doorstep delivery.
As of the end of Q3 FY26, APSEZ operated 19 ports and terminals, 68 container rakes, 12 MMLPs, 3.1 million sq ft of warehousing and an owned and managed fleet of over 25,000 trucks.
Industry sources said the addition of in-house container manufacturing would plug the final gap in APSEZ’s integrated transport utility model, further strengthening its competitive positioning across the logistics value chain.
