Just as the Red Sea started to look calm, the waters churned again. After a few quiet weeks, Yemen's Houthi rebels attacked a Belize-flag transport ship on Monday, forcing the crew to abandon the vessel. The attacks have continued despite the United States using its considerable firepower to hit Houthi bases with airstrikes. 

The Houthi rebels walk around with oversized jambiya daggers around their waists, but their real weapons are the anti-ship cruise missiles and drones they use to target ships.

Now, other gangs are joining the action. Pirates linked to Somalia's al-Shabab terror group have been inactive for nearly a decade. But since November, nearly 20 ships have been attacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, next to the Red Sea. 

As many as 19,000 ships cross the Suez Canal and Red Sea every year, making this strait a critical point for energy and freight movement. To avoid attacks, ships are now taking the longer route around Africa, to move goods between Europe, US and Asia. The higher time spent on the water is requiring an extra 20% of global fleet capacity.

Major shipping companies –  BP, Equinor, Maersk, Evergreen Line – warn that the security situation in the Red Sea is getting worse, not better in the near-term. This means higher insurance rates and more travel time for exporters. 

These costs are hitting some Indian companies especially hard.  The Indian think-tank Research and Information Systems, estimates that higher container shipping rates and delayed shipments could cause a 6.7% drop in Indian exports in FY24, from FY23’s $451 billion total. This puts around $30 billion on the line.

In this week's Analyticks:

• Rebels in the Red Sea raise risks for Indian exporters
• Winners of Q3 screener: Stocks which beat Forecaster analyst estimates in both revenue and net profit

Let's take a look. 

 CEOs are keeping a close eye on rising shipping costs

Sometimes, CEOs are able to take control and steer their companies through a crisis. Other times, they can only wait and watch. This has been the case with the Red Sea attacks, where Houthi rebels, shipping companies and insurance players are dictating terms to Indian exporters.

For India, the Red Sea is a major shipping route to Europe, the US East coast, the Middle East and Africa. And costs here are rising. Nilima Divi, Director of Divi's Laboratories for example, points to the "mandatory war risk insurance" exporters have to now take due to the attacks. Freight costs for Asia-Europe as well as Asia-US routes are near record levels.

Chart: WCI (World Container Index) prices for key routes from Asia to US and Europe

On earnings calls, Indian exporters say that they are currently paying 30% more on average in shipping freight. Major exports through the Red Sea from India include petroleum products, chemicals and cereals, according to the Indian Trade Ministry.

Chemicals stocks, which have been struggling with muted demand, China dumping and tight margins, have been hard hit by the additional freight costs. And while pharma companies are in recovery mode, with growth rising in the key markets of US and Europe, price pressures have only recently eased up. Rising shipping costs would renew the pressure. Lupin's Managing Director Ramesh Swaminathan called  the Red Sea "the dark cloud on the horizon."

Rashesh Gogri, MD of Aarti Industries notes two main challenges for chemical exporters, "The pricing of containers has definitely gone up, and we will have a quarter lag or in some cases a month lag to push these prices up with the customers," indicating that Aarti will in the meantime, take a hit to their margins in Q4. Tha second challenge is rising shipping times, which have increased by two weeks when ships are avoiding the Red Sea. These factors impact 30% of Aarti Industries' exports.

Auto component players are upbeat, thanks to strong demand in Europe

One set of exporters that are relatively less impacted by the Red Sea crisis (so far) is India's auto component industry, thanks to stronger demand outlook and margin growth. Auto component players in India have benefited from vendor diversification by global vehicle manufacturers, and the demand recovery in key markets like Europe.

  Chart: Europe sees car sales recover in January 2024

ICRA estimates that operating margins for auto component manufacturers are set to rise 50-100 bps YoY in FY24, reaching pre-Covid levels of 11.0-11.5%, and will continue to improve in FY25 by another 50-100 bps.

Vivek Vikram Singh, CEO of Sona BLW (Sona Comstar) notes that advance reservations have helped limit higher freight costs for now. "If you don't go on winter break and you're actually in office on 2nd January, it's easier to get containers booked," he says, "So the impact is not much right now. But if prices keep rising for a substantial time, we will see a significant impact."

The long-term cost outlook for exporters is actually pretty optimistic. According to logistics company Flexport, "There is so much new shipping capacity coming onstream in the next two years, that it can absorb the cost of long journeys around the cape of Africa, if trouble in the Red Sea persists." But in the short term, the rebels and the pirates are the ones holding the cards.

Screener: Stocks which beat Trendlyne's Forecaster estimates for revenue and net profit in Q3FY24

Natco Pharma, Adani Enterprises lead in positive estimates surprises in Q3FY24

As the Q3FY24 results season concludes, we take a look at companies that have outperformed their estimates. This screener shows stocks which beat Trendlyne's Forecaster estimates for revenue and net profit in Q3FY24 by over 5 %. 

The screener is dominated by stocks from the banking & finance, cement & construction, oil & gas and pharma & biotech sectors. Major stocks that appear in the screener are Natco Pharma, Macrotech Developers, UTI Asset Management, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, Archean Chemical, Adani Enterprises, Nippon Life India Asset Management and Avanti Feeds. 

Natco Pharma beat its Forecaster estimates for revenue and net profit by 32.1% and 155.3%, respectively, in Q3FY24. Its revenue grew by 54% YoY to Rs 758.6 crore, while its net profit jumped 2.4x to Rs 212.7 crore. The revenue growth was driven by an improvement in the pharma and agrochem segments. The company’s operating profit margin also expanded by 13.8 percentage points, owing to reduced raw material costs.

Macrotech Developers also beat Forecaster estimates for revenue and net profit by 24.8% and 51.2%, respectively, during the quarter. The realtor’s revenue surged by 65.2% YoY to Rs 2,930.6 crore in Q3FY24, helped by enhanced pre-sales and average price realisation. Its net profit increased by 24.4% YoY to Rs 503.3 crore, while its operating profit margin expanded by 736 bps YoY to 30.1%, thanks to lower finance costs. 

You can find more screeners here,