Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Saturday, Jul 16, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, Jul 16, 2005 |
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Logistics
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Shipping `Emerging markets have thrown open opportunity for container trade' Our Bureau
Kolkata , July 15 THE emergence of new markets such as the Far-East, especially China, the Mediterranean and the West Asia, in addition to traditional trade partners such as the US and Europe, has resulted in restructuring of shipping patterns and trading routes, according to Mr S. Hajara, Director (Personnel & Administration), Shipping Corporation of India (SCI). Addressing the annual general meeting of the Calcutta Freight Brokers' Association (CFBA) here on Friday, Mr Hajara said the emerging patterns had thrown up opportunities for tremendous growth, as was evident from the doubling of the container volume in less than 10 years with the annual growth rate being around 10 per cent. Describing SCI as the "niche player" in container trade catering mainly to the Europe and Far East, he pointed out that the Indian shipping companies, including SCI, had missed the opportunity to gain a foothold in the container trade in the seventies and eighties. "Even in recent past, SCI's plan to acquire container tonnage did not make much headway in the context of proposed privatisation as the Government did not allow capital investments (other than two VLCCs as a special case)," he said. The privatisation move has now been abandoned but the shipyards were full till 2008 and the ship prices had gone through the roof, he added. The non-availability of suitable vessels at charter market at a suitable price forced SCI to temporarily withdraw container services to the US. "We will again commence the US operation and go for container tonnage acquisition but only at an opportune moment," he said. SCI, Mr Hajara said, would not be in the league of a giant container operator in the foreseeable future but its presence in the liner trade would continue to be in the national interest. Mr Hajara said that SCI's plan to grow through acquisitions was only at a conceptual stage as nothing concrete had materialised. The Indian shipping, he said, has a lot to cheer about with the country's tonnage having crossed eight million gross tonnage mark for the first time. Unfortunately, the growth in tonnage had not kept pace with the growth of the country's sea-borne trade with the result the share of Indian fleet in the sea-borne trade steadily declined over the years to less than 15 per cent now from the peak of 40 per cent in the early eighties. Earlier, Mr V.K. Chhajer, Chairman of CFBA, in his welcome address, said with the future trend being 8,000-15,000 TEUs vessels, at least two deep draught ports, one on the east coast and the other on the west coast, should be developed as none of the present ports in the country would be able to handle large-size vessels.
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