Shipping Corporation to acquire 30 more vessels by 2015

The Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) will add 30 more vessels to its fleet by March 2015, a top official of the state-owned shipping company has said.

The company, he said, also has plans for diversification into areas like ship-building and emerge a full-fledged maritime player from being only a shipping company at present.

"We have 30-odd vessels worth Rs9,150 crore ($2 billion). The vessels will be delivered by 2014-15. We will order more for over $2 billion," SCI chairman and managing director S Hajara said while addressing the 72nd annual general meeting of the Calcuta Freight Brokers Association.

SCI at present owns 76 ships of 5.1 million deadweight tonnage (DWT), which is the total weight of the ship including the cargo, crew and fuel). SCI, which currently operates 60 vessels of 0.2 million tonnes DWT, plans to up its capacity to 12 million DWT by March 2015 with the acquisition of 30 vessels.

Regarding the company's diversification plans, Hajara said SCI planned to emerge a global maritime player from being a shipping company at present and would enter the ship-building segment.

During the current year SCI has taken delivery of two newbuilt medium range product tankers - `MT Swarna Mala'  and `MT Swarna Pushp.'

`MT Swarna Mala', bought from  Prikonissos Maritime SA, Monorovia, Liberia, and delivered by STX Shipyard, S Korea on 25 January 2010.  The vessel has a gross tonnage of 29,993 tonnes and deadweight of 51,196.34 tonnes and has been built to comply with the latest and most stringent international regulations under DNV classification.

`MT Swarna Pushp' bought from Jinling Shipyard, in Nanjin, China, on 27 January 2010, is the second of the two MR product tankers on order with Jinling Shipyard.