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Santanu Sanyal

Kolkata, June 11 Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) is going for new liner services in a big way. A beginning has already been made with the launch of “Smile”, a service to West Asia Gulf, a couple of months ago. Steps have now been initiated to start a feeder service between Kolkata and Singapore for the first time and two mainline services, also from the east coast, one connecting Visakhapatnam/Chennai with South China ports via Singapore and the other connecting Chennai/Tuticorin with Mediterranean/European ports.

Resumption of the US East Coast service is also on the cards, it is learnt. Capping it all, there is a proposal to start a coastal service covering not only the country’s east and west coasts but also Chittagong (Bangladesh) and Karachi (Pakistan).

While the West Asia Gulf service is a fortnightly service being run by SCI on its own with two vessels of 1600-TEU capacity each, the proposed Kolkata-Singapore-Kolkata will be a weekly service to be run with two vessels of 400-450 TEU capacity.

The Kolkata-Singapore and Visakhapatnam/Chennai-South China (via Singapore) services may not be SCI’s own service as talks are believed to be in progress with some of the foreign lines.

The names of Yang Ming Line and PACC Container Line are being heard in this connection but SCI sources declined to confirm, except saying, “We’re open to negotiations with all interested lines”.

The proposed Chennai / Tuticorin-Mediterranean / Europe service is to be launched in partnership with a few other lines. The plan is to start the Kolkata-Singapore service from July, but it will be a few more months before the other services can be launched.

While the resumption of the US East Coast service is being actively considered, much will depend on the partners to be teamed up with. SCI, it is learnt, is in discussion with some of its existing partners in other services but nothing has concretised as yet.

It might be noted that SCI withdrew from the US East Coast service a few months ago.

The service was being run with 2,800-TEU capacity vessels in partnership with Emirates Shipping. There has been a sharp rise in freight rates since then — more than $3,000 per TEU, up from $900 or so at that time.

The plan is to re-launch the service with higher capacity vessels, upwards of 3,000 TEUs.

But then much will depend on the partner(s) to be selected for the service. If everything progresses as planned, SCI’s US service should be operational by the end of this year, it is learnt.

The coastal service is still at an exploratory stage. Negotiations are on with some of the Indian coastal and barge operators to firm up the route, the types of vessels to be operated and various other issues. It will be a few more months before the issues get sorted out, add SCI sources.

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