The Hindu Business Line : Eurasia mulls India expansion

Eurasia, a third-party ship management firm functioning out of Hong Kong, proposes to expand its operations in India and has accordingly opened its first office in Kolkata, the fourth in India. The first office in India was opened in Mumbai as early as 1991.

Right now Eurasia manages 125 ships, such as tankers, bulk carriers and container ships belonging to reputed owners around the globe, to be increased to 150 by the end of this year and to more than 200 by end 2008. With this, its requirement of officers both on the engineering and deck sides will increase substantially.

Officers recruitment

“We will need to recruit 50-60 new officers every year from India and a number of them will be from Kolkata which is the home of high-quality officers”, according to a spokesman for Eurasia. Currently, Eurasia has 2,000 officers on board and an equal number of on leave. The number is growing every month. The company employs a sizeable number of officers from India and number is set to increase in coming months.

“Eurasia is committed to Indian market and increasing global career opportunities for Indian seafarers”, the spokesman said. “We are proud of our retention rate.”

Training in Mumbai

The spokesman, however, made it clear that the recruitment of ratings in India would be only through the company’s office in Mumbai. “It is centralised in Mumbai where we provide training facilities”, he added.

Eurasia is a member of the Hamburg-based Schulte Group which owns 70 vessels and manages more than 400 vessels, the other companies in the group being Dorchester Atlantic Marine in the Isle of Man and Bermuda, VBSK in Hamburg and Hanseatic in Cyprus. Together they employ about 7,900 people on board and 870 on shore.