The Hindu Business Line : Shreyas Shipping steers Maruti cars into Kochi port

Kochi, May 8 Shreyas Shipping Logistics Ltd, the logistics division of shipping conglomerate the Transworld Group, has formalised an exclusive contract with Maruti Udyog Ltd for the movement of Maruti cars to Kerala through the coastal shipping mode.

The company, which started moving cars on a trial basis from the Gurgaon factory to the Kochi port, has now signed an exclusive agreement in this regard, Mr Ramesh S. Ramakrishnan, Chairman of the Transworld Group, told reporters here on Thursday.

Shreyas is providing the entire logistics by transporting cars from Gurgaon to Mundra Port by road and transferring them to Kochi by sea.

It is currently carrying 250 cars weekly and the figures are likely to go up shortly.

The finalisation of this contract is set to increase the company’s business in coastal shipping, which is in the range of 1,100 TEUs, he said.

Alternative modes

To a question on time and cost savings through sea transportation, a spokesman of the company pointed out that there would not be much of a difference in cost while the time saved would be about three days and with less damage to the consignment.

Maruti is looking at alternative modes of transporting vehicles from its factory as the requirement for Maruti cars is increasing rapidly in the State and it cannot fully depend on the road network to cater to the demand.

Moreover, the State Government also wants to ease congestion on roads, he added.

Mr Ramakrishnan was in Kochi for the official launch of its newly built vessel — m.v. OEL Dubai — to service the Kochi-Colombo feeder sector.

The company has purchased the vessel from Singapore at a cost of $28 million. It had also placed orders for two more ships with Chinese yards, which will be delivered in 2010.

Fleet of 22

The group, with a turnover of $700 million, is having 22 ships in its fleet.

The focus of the company is largely in the business of feedering as well as in domestic coastal operations.

He said that the container throughput of Orient Express Lines, the flagship company of the group, has grown steadily over the years and for the year 2007, it moved close to five lakh TEUs.

With the growing trade between the Indian sub-continent and the Arabian Gulf, OEL sees its role as a regional carrier increasing in the future.

The future plans include feeder services from Kochi to Gulf and Jebel Ali to Umm Qasr in Iraq.

Feedering business

Asked about the future of feedering services at a time when major ports are setting up transhipment terminals, he said that the feedering business will remain here and only the size of vessels will change.

The feeder vessels will be required to move cargo for transhipment between major ports in the country, he said.

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