Category Archives: Shipping

In the wake of keen interest showed by the investors and investments worth several hundred billion rupees being in the pipeline, Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh has issued directions for further strengthening of the investor-friendly industrial ecosystem and for building a robust logistics infrastructure in the state. The state government has nominated Additional Chief Secretary (Infrastructure & Industrial Development) Alok Kumar as state nodal officer for developing the integrated state logistics plan aimed at overall development of logistics sector. Kumar will head a newly created state logistics cell to function in sync with national logistics division for development of supply chains and warehousing facilities for industries. The officials of state government departments like Planning, Transport, Civil Aviation, Revenue, PWD, Export Promotion Bureau, UP Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) will be the key members on board, and nodal officers from Central agencies like National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Airports Authority of India (AAI), Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), etc. will be special invitees to the cell. The state government will also set up a state logistics coordination committee under the chairmanship of the chief secretary to monitor the progress and implementation of the logistics plan. Uttar Pradesh is attracting sizeable investments in warehousing & logistics sector, so far, total 6 proposals worth approximately Rs 438 Crores have been received in the sector.

Women International Shipping and Trading Association, India has successfully completed its eight constructive and successful years. The association for women in managerial roles in the maritime sector was launched in India in 2012 by Founder Members Sanjam Sahi Gupta and Sumi Sahi Dutt, Directors of Sitara Shipping. WISTA India has achieved many milestones by focusing on providing a platform for networking, sharing of knowledge, education through workshops/seminars and mentoring of young members to enhance their competence and empower their career success. To encourage and recognize its’ members’ achievements, WISTA India holds the ‘WISTA Personality of the Year Award’ each year. Over the years, WISTA has held events for its members that include visits to ports and container freight stations, opportunities to attend overseas conferences, seminars on current industry topics, and training programs for members’ professional development. Commenting on the 8th Anniversary, Summiit Cheema, President, WISTA India says, “We at WISTA, India have consistently kept member care as our ethos and post pandemic we feel the need to further strengthen this quality about the association. She also mentioned that bearing in mind the pandemic situation, WISTA, India had a lot of events and initiatives around wellness, be it physical fitness or mental health. She further added that “our founder member Sanjam Sahi Gupta delivered a very successful Maritime SheEO conference on “Diversity and Sustainability” on 23rd November 2020 that surpassed all barriers of geography, time zones and cultures”. WISTA is driven by the core values of Gender Diversity and Equality and looking ahead WISTA India with the support of Maritime SheEO plans on making this a reality. Founder Member and President Emeritus Sanjam has been a driving force for gender equality …

Responding to November 2020 export figures, Sharad Kumar Saraf, President, FIEO, says that the monthly exports have shown a single-digit negative growth of 8.74 per cent with US$ 23.52 billion due to supply side disruptions including restricted container movement and declining petroleum exports due to its crashing prices. Besides, farmers agitation in some of the hinterland states have also affected exports during the month. Exports have been seeing signs of revival as order booking position has continuously improved and more new orders are in the offing. Saraf reiterated that the forecast of the arrival of the Covid-19 Pandemic vaccine along with gradual lifting of lockdown across the country and the globe has also helped in boosting the business sentiments for the sector as a whole, which can be expected to be seen from the positive figures of the upcoming months. Going by this trend, we expect to end the financial 2020-21 with an overall merchandise exports of about US$290 billion, adds FIEO President. Exporters have continuously been receiving a lot of enquiries and orders further adding to the positive sentiments with signals of further resilience in the global supply chain. However, the litmus test for the traditional sectors of our exports would be the Christmas and New year sale. If that goes well, the inventory will be liquidated, adding to further demand, observed Saraf. FIEO Chief said that the exports of other cereals along with oil meals, iron-ore, rice, ceramic products and glassware, handicrafts excluding hand-made carpet, cereal preparations and miscellaneous processed item, carpet, jute mfg. including floor covering, spices, drugs and pharmaceuticals, tobacco, cotton yarn/fabrics/made-ups, handloom products etc., fruits and vegetables, tea, gems and jewellery, mica, coal and other …

With the demand for upgraded skills for port-led development increasing, the JNPT-Antwerp Port Training & Consultancy Foundation has announced an online course in Break Bulk Handling at the training centre. The programme has been devised after extensive consultations with the Ports and the other stakeholders. The aim of this online course is to provide training and expertise to port professionals and share the best practises prevailing at the leading terminals of Port of Antwerp. The online training sessions are led by faculty from APEC, Belgium and the Indian Experts, the sessions will be attended by officers from the Government Ports as well as Private Ports. Commenting on the training program, Sanjay Sethi, IAS, Chairman, JNPT says, “The participation in this course will help create common understanding of the safety and efficiency standards which will ensure safe and timely cargo handling. We intend to host many such courses after feedback from the private sector and the major ports. We are delighted with our APEC association, who has trained over 14,000 trainees from across 150 countries, since its inception making it the natural choice of Port-related trainings for port officials.”

Chowgule Shipyards has announced that it has successfully delivered India’s first vessel in the export market since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The general cargo vessel, named ‘Lady Hedwig’ for Netherlands based client ‘Wijnne & Barends’ is 98.2 m in length Overall, 13.4 m in breadth moulded, 7.8 m in depth and has a draft of 5.6 m. This is the third from a series of six vessels ordered by the client and the shipyard is proud to build Ice Class Swedish Finnish 1A quality vessels for world market, again first of its kind from India. The vessel has sailed today from Goa on her maiden voyage. Commenting on the development, Arjun Chowgule, Executive Director, Chowgule & Company says, “We are proud to be the first in India to achieve this feat since the COVID-19 pandemic. Our team worked relentlessly towards building the vessel before the set timeline and ensured that its delivery is not affected despite the pandemic. In the absence of OEM service engineers due to COVID-19 restrictions, our team performed the tasks of commissioning equipment themselves, supported remotely by OEMs. This achievement reiterates our focus on being a serious player in the international shipbuilding market We will continue to work on delivering such world-class vessels in future too, in line with our Prime Minister’s vision of an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’.”

With an aim to make the postage cheap and easy, Gxpress is all set to launch an operating system called Ecomgistics for e-commerce for small parcels in India, starting from 50 grams. The sellers also have an option to consolidate the small parcels in a single box and send to the desired location. Sellers will get the lowest shipping prices with free small parcel tracking, without sacrificing the quality of service. Its vision is to empower small to medium sized businesses and entrepreneurs so that they can really focus on their business instead of worrying about operational activities such as shipments, custom clearances and other challenges when are shipping internationally. Gxpress’ easy-to-use website will enable them to book a pickup, estimate cost, and track their packages and more. “The logistics industry has been completely standstill since the start of the beginning of the unprecedented crisis of Covid-19 and lockdowns, ensuring that the supply chains remain intact. Due to the shortage of labour and the restrictions being imposed on the movement of goods and businesses, the supply chain has been disrupted in the past six months. Now, as the businesses started opening, we have planned to launch Ecomgistics for small businesses because we at Gxpress understand the obstacles faced by companies especially when they have to ship small parcels from India but cannot due to high shipping costs. We will focus on empowering small to medium sized businesses and entrepreneurs in the growth of their customers by giving them the option to consolidate the small parcels in a single box and send to the desired location” said Praveen Vashistha, Founder & Director of Gxpress. Gxpress has a mission to build the …

With a 14 per cent growth quarter on quarter, India’s containerised export is helping the country’s trade recover, explains Maersk report on India’s import-export trade update from Q3 of 2020 (July – September). During Q3 of 2020, the Indian containerised trade contracted by about 8 per cent as compared to the same period last year. However, comparing to Q2 of 2020, there has been a 31 per cent increase in volumes, indicating that trade is on a path of recovery. Exports out of India are up by 14 per cent over Q3 of last year while they are 47 per cent higher than Q2 of 2020. Imports are however 28 per cent lower than Q3 of 2019, but have recovered by more than 30 per cent from Q2 2020. The rising demand for Indian textiles and apparels, especially to the North American markets, has driven tremendous growth in exports in the past quarter. Textiles and apparels contribute a quarter of exports to North America, and these volumes delivered a growth of 10 per cent over the same quarter last year. The exports of textiles and apparels to the Mediterranean markets also grew by 10 per cent. Other commodities that witnessed growth in exports include tile, stone and glass to the North European region, and seeds, beans, cereal and flour to the Middle East and Mediterranean countries. Imports into India start showing first signs of recovery Q3 of 2020 was yet another quarter where imports were lower than the same period in 2019, however there is some growth compared to Q2 of 2020. Imports of commodities such as paper, metal, appliances and kitchenware have increased since the last quarter, though they …

Chowgule Brothers has announced the successful management of W Oslo, the largest cargo ship to be handled at the inner harbour of Visakhapatnam port. The vessel’s entry to the port was orchestrated by Chowgule Brothers in close association with the Vizag port, thereby establishing its expertise in handling cargo as well as charters of all sizes. Port of Visakhapatnam has created a new record by handling the said vessel. The Merchant vessel W. OSLO was carrying 87,529 tonnes of Steam Coal from Richards Bay, South Africa for M/s Sarda Metal and Alloys, Sarda Energy Minerals for discharging at Visakhapatnam Port. The port agency for the entire shipment was Chowgule Brothers Private Limited. The vessel is expected to sail from the port on December 7, 2020. The receiver of the cargo, Sharda Metals approached Chowgule Brothers to be their shipping agency for the large vessel with coal from South Africa. The specific requirement was to enable the movement of the gigantic ship into the inner harbour at Visakhapatnam port. Chowgule Brothers worked with the port authorities in the smooth berthing of the vessel with a beam measuring 38 meters that is almost twice the size of two lawn tennis courts. Commenting on this achievement, Aditya Chowgule, Director, Chowgule Brothers, said, “The entire exercise of enabling the berthing of W Oslo at Visakhapatnam Port is an example of Chowgule Brothers belief in adding value and going the extra mile for making the client’s requirement possible. We are thankful to the Vizag port authorities for helping us in this very challenging execution. The successful completion of this project has driven us to set the bar higher when it comes to delivering logistical solutions …

Responding to November 2020 export figures, Sharad Kumar Saraf, President, FIEO, said that the monthly exports have shown a single-digit negative growth of 9.07 per cent with US$ 25.77 billion due to supply side disruptions including restricted container movement and declining petroleum exports due to its crashing prices. Besides, farmers’ agitations in some of the hinterland states have also affected exports during the month. Exports have been seeing sign of revival as order booking position has continuously improved and more new orders are in the offing. Saraf reiterated that the forecast of the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic vaccine along with gradual lifting of lockdown across the country and the globe has also helped in boosting the business sentiments for the sector as a whole, which can be expected to be seen from the positive figures of the upcoming months. “Going by this trend, we expect to end the financial 2020-21 with an overall merchandise exports of about US$ 290 billion,” he adds. Exporters have continuously been receiving a lot of enquiries and orders further adding to the positive sentiments with signals of further resilience in the global supply chain. However, the litmus test for the traditional sectors of our exports would be the Christmas and New Year sale. If that goes well, the inventory will be liquidated, adding to further demand, observed Saraf. FIEO Chief said that the exports of other cereals along with oil meals, iron-ore, rice, ceramic products and glassware, handicrafts excluding hand-made carpet, cereal preparations and miscellaneous processed item, carpet, jute mfg. including floor covering, spices, drugs and pharmaceuticals, tobacco, cotton yarn/fabrics/made-ups, handloom products etc., fruits and vegetables, tea, gems and jewellery, mica, coal and other …

GEODIS has structured its internal network of women and its mission is to give GEODIS employees opportunities to express themselves, to propose, initiate or relay actions that positively contribute to gender parity and to the assumption of responsibilities of women. The network also intends to act on the reputation of the logistics and transport industry, a traditionally male sector, in order to change its image and attract more women. The company has held its annual summit of the ‘GEODIS Women Network’ (GWN). “We want to continue the action taken and give women the means to access key positions. Our goal is to increase the number of women in managerial positions”, indicates, Mario Ceccon, Human Resources Director of the GEODIS group. “13% in 2017, they are now 18% women in management positions. We have set ourselves the objective of reaching 25% by 2023.” The GWN works for inclusion, reduction of professional disparities between men and women, improved work-life balance and equal career prospects. “With a President at its head, GEODIS is already sending a strong signal showing the access by women to positions of responsibility” indicates Mario Ceccon. Over the next 3 years, the GWN will focus its actions on the following various objectives: • Study and harmonization of possible pay gaps, • The establishment of a leadership program aimed at empowering women, • The development of the recruitment and representation of women in the transport and logistics industry. Attract more women to the Logistics & Transport sector The other objective of the network is to deconstruct the image of the sector by acting in favour of actions aimed at encouraging women to join the logistics and transport professions. “We encourage …