Shipping

Shipping Corporation expands business

Hiran H. SENEWIRATNE

Ceylon Shipping Corporation (CSC) is considering to acquire its own ship fuel supply vessel to sell bunkers in Colombo port through its joint venture with a Greek shipping family firm, its sources said.

CSC has started dealing with bunkering in a small way and are looking at buying a supply barge, an official at CSC, Sri Lanka's national shipping line told the Daily News Business.

Colombo's bunker or ship fuel market is becoming more competitive with eight licence holders in the fray. But only two, the largest supplier, Lanka Marine Services (LMS), and Sri Lanka Shipping, have supply vessels.

The storage tanks are to become a common user facility available to all licensed suppliers.

The CSC official said, the joint venture now sells bunker fuels by sub-contracting orders to the firms with supply vessels.

LMS, a unit of conglomerate John Keells Holdings, long held an effective monopoly on ship fuel sales in Colombo and owned the only onshore storage facility until a recent court order to hand it back to the port.

CSC has set up a company called CSC Kandia, a joint venture with Ariston Oil and Shipping, part of the group owned by Greek shipping tycoon Pyrros Vardirioyannis, whose family has a long maritime business tradition.

The CSC official said, the joint venture with the Greeks will now concentrate on bunkering after it lost its bid to ship crude oil supplies to the state owned oil refiner, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation.

Seminar on maritime and ports security

Today, the international community fails to realise that sea piracy still has not been eliminated.

Not only has piracy never been eradicated, but the number of pirate attacks on ships off the coasts of Somalia, Nigeria and the Malaccan straights has tripled in the past decade elevating piracy to its highest level in history. And contrary to the stereotype, intelligence has revealed that today's pirates are often trained fighters aboard speedboats equipped with satellite phones and global positioning systems and armed with automatic weapons, antitank missiles, and grenades. Many of these so-called pirates have ties to their regional terrorist organisations, a press release states.

Asia Securities downsises JKH Transport Sector profits to Rs. 928 m.

Ravi LADDUWAHETTY

Asia Securities has downsized the 2008/2009 profit forecast for the John Keells Holdings Group Transport Sector to Rs. 928 million due to the cascading effects of the recent Supreme Court judgment on Lanka Marine Services Ltd.

The forecast was buttressed by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority planning to liberate bunkering services by allowing other licensed operators to share the facility.

Accordingly, eight operators would have equal access to the common user facilities, comprising the main pipeline and storage tanks.

An Asia Securities spokesman told Daily News Business that while it believed that LMS would maintain a competitive edge over alternate suppliers, it was evident that the sharing of facilities would result in storage capacities of LMS being insufficient to meet the demand conditions.

Therefore, he said, JKH was currently exploring the option of expanding capacity through the utilization of floating tankers, which will be obtained through leasing agreements with regional suppliers.

However, it was evident that margins would be somewhat thinner due to the additional cost pressure inserted by the leasing option coupled with the relatively higher cost of offshore storage compared to onshore storage facilities.

"Additionally competitive pressures on account of the entrance of new players would further hamper growth.

With the sharing of the facility amongst all operators we believe LMS would witness a significant decline in the market share currently held. Whilst LMS previously operated with a virtual monopoly commanding nearly 75 per cent market share, we believe conservatively that with the entrance of new operators this share would decline to a near 20 per cent," he said.

Asia Securities believes that JKH is in a strong position to recover from this non-recurring setback, whilst the earnings outlook of the company remains healthy in the long run.

Project to bring maximum transshipment income

The Data Base and the Project Access Report of the Colombo Port Integrated Development Project (CPILDP) of Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) was launched at the Mahapola Training Institute (MPTI) of SLPA recently.

Co-Chairman of the Project, and the Executive Director of SLPA Dr. Sanjaya Sedara Senarath said that it was much pleasure to complete these works with the fullest contribution of the staff and employees of SLPA without outsourcing the project. Co-Chairman, and Director of SLPA Prasanna Kalutharage stated that SLPA was able to save a large amount of money by implementing the programme as an inhouse project. He also said that the exemplary procedures set by the implementation of Hambantota Port Development Project, gave boost for the implementation of such mega programmes to be carried out with the expertise and the experience of the employeer of SLPA without handing them over to local or foreign external institutions.

Colombo Port Integrated Land Development Project is in the third place among several other mega port development programmes implemented by SLPA. It is also the first ever such development project implemented with the hundred percent contribution of the in-house consultation, and employee participation. The programme has been planned to bring maximum transshipment income to SLPA once the project is completed. A 26 acre land in which SLPA employee quarters have been situated will be utilised to build the cargo village under the project.

Kiran wins Presidential Export Award

Colombo Engineering Enterprises, won the Presidential Export Award 2008 in the ship repairing sector for the second consecutive year recently.

Having earned a name as the 'Model of efficiency' in Shipping, Colombo Engineering Enterprises has won twenty two awards to-date for its off shore services in the international shipping industry. In total, the company has won seven entrepreneurship awards, four Exporter of the Year awards, eight National Business awards and one achiever of Industrial Excellence National award and two Presidential awards. Chairman, Colombo Engineering Enterprises, Kiran Attapattu receiving the award from Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka.


 

United Shipping to celebrate 20th anniversary

United Shipping Inc., the premier Worldwide Association of Independent Freight Forwarders and Customs Brokers with over 110 partner companies and 250 offices is announced the details of their grand 20th Anniversary Celebration.

The association founded in 1988 is planning a royal one of the kind anniversary extravaganza October 13-17, 2008.

Partners from across the globe will convene at the Omni Royal Hotel, New Orleans, Louisiana to celebrate. Fred Hall, President of United Shipping states "We have been working extremely hard on the upcoming meeting in New Orleans and plans are coming together very nicely. We've got a lot of great surprises in store for each person in New Orleans".

The 38th Worldwide Meeting and 20th Anniversary Gala is on track to be the largest attended meeting in the history of United Shipping.

United Shipping is an innovative, forward thinking association that provides exceptional service through all transportation methods. The unique group prides itself on being a distinctive organization that represents the epitome of the concept "Partnership".

United Shipping is the first of its kind network and seeks to achieve common goals while maintaining outstanding performance in a global market.