New Delhi, Sept. 4 -- Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd's business update for August reflects strong momentum with cargo handled across its ports growing by 19% year-on-year to 50 million tonnes (mt). With this, growth in the first two months of the September quarter (Q2FY27) now exceeds 18%, up from 14.5% in Q1FY27. Given the relatively healthy volumes despite the disruption caused by the West Asia war, growth may pick up further in the seasonally strong second half.

However, these numbers include the North Queensland Export Terminal (NQXT) in Australia, which Adani Ports acquired in December. "Assuming a quarterly run rate of 10-11mt for NQXT, as seen in the past, volumes for August (excluding NQXT) work out to 46mt, up about 1...